Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Natural Elements' 1999, Give Or Take a Few

Hey, remember when Natural Elements were finally releasing their long-shelved Tommy Boy album on vinyl for its tenth anniversary through Traffic Entertainment?  And then Traffic dropped out, and they wound up releasing a CD-only version that included about two thirds of the album and filled the rest with a bizarre, patchwork mix of older material?  Well, now it's their twentieth anniversary and they're here to do it right...er.  It's still kinda screwy.  But they've made genuine improvements.  It's definitely good news overall.

So let's start on the positive side.  1999: 20 Year Anniversary is on vinyl!  Yes, you can now finally, after all these years, get these songs on wax.  A double LP even.  And it comes in a cool gatefold cover, and if you really want to splurge, you can order the more limited colored vinyl options.  Specifically, there are 100 copies pressed on three striped color vinyl, 100 pressed on blue, white (white) and orange splatter vinyl (the stripes are the same three colors), and another 300 on your basic black.  Oh and there's also a CD version.

Now let's step into the disappointing... it's still mostly the same weird track-listing they made for the tenth anniversary CD, where they leave off several of the still unreleased Tommy Boy songs and fill that space with their most common, greatest hits material most NE fans already have (the credit in the liner notes saying, "all tracks recorded in NYC in 1999" is just wrong).  And the ones that don't could get them if they chose, unlike the still unreleased songs, which none of us can get.

But I said "mostly," because they did make an interesting change or two.  First of all, they've re-arranged the track-listing to put the intro back at the beginning, a nice little correction of the tenth anniversary, which curiously stuck it at the end.  But more critically, they've taken off the song "MTV (More Than Vocals)" and replaced it with the never officially released "Life Ain't Fair."  To be clear, this is the original version with the hook sung by Bridge that I first wrote about in my article for Hip Hop Connection and that wound up on that hard to find bootleg with the Truck Turner songs.  This is not the version Chopped Herring gave a proper release to on the first of their amazing Demo EPs.

This is a strange decision, which on the scales I suppose leans more to the pro than the con, but could've easily been a lot more pro.  This is the first official release of that "Life Ain't Fair," and it's on vinyl, so that's pretty sweet.  And taking "MTV" off makes sense, since it was never intended to be on that Tommy Boy album (it was recorded years later).  But "MTV" has never been released on vinyl, and it would've been nice to get it on wax now, even if it's not really a proper 1999 track.  After all, about a third of what's on here, including "Life Ain't Fair," isn't a proper 1999 track.  And again, there are plenty of songs on here that have been readily available on vinyl already for decades that they could've swapped off instead.  "Bust Mine" or "Paper Chase," for example, are super easy to find on 12", nice and inexpensive, and they weren't from 1999 either.  With that said, though, since "MTV" was at least on the CD, and "Life Ain't Fair" has never seen a proper release, I do prefer getting "Life" to "MTV."  It's a change for the better.  It's just a Sophie's Choice we shouldn't have had to make.

But don't let my criticisms land too hard.  A new double-LP of incredible Natural Elements music, most of which has never been released on vinyl before?  That's awesome news and everyone reading this should cop it.  I just wish they had the courage not to buoy these up with their greatest hits.  They definitely don't need to, and it means those last six songs from their 1999 Tommy Boy album are still abandoned in the vault.  Of course... just one more, little wafer-thin 12" EP could fix all that for all time, and we fans would gobble it up.  Just sayin'.  😉

10 comments:

  1. I want Phone Sex. And I want it bad.

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  2. Just some background. We let the boys line up this how they saw the vision. It was for them the label didnt impeed. Its all the singles because its their main body of work. Remastered for cd 16 bit. And the vinyl 24 for some extra pop. Its more cohesive sound and layout wise. Also more to come but didnt want to mess around to much and create a totally different album. Also those 6 tracks not sure what they are even the crew isnt. Could be tommy boy leaks. But this was done for them. The fans. And l swifts mother Agatha. Labor of love we appreciate the feedback and gotta have pros and cons. But the main pro. Artists had full creative control over their lifes work. Thats my job fullfiled. Thank you for the post and words. MIKE COLE. HIP HOP ENTERPRISE!

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    1. Hey, it's nice to hear that the label put the artists' interests first; but at the end of the day, we fans have to look at it from our interests first, where it's still a bummer to be re-sold the songs we've already got while being denied the yet-unreleased songs. But yeah, like I said, it's still really good news overall and definitely a recommended, must-have 2LP.

      As for the unreleased songs, yeah, it's the other ones that were part of the leaked album. We still don't have official titles for them all, since there's never been a legit release; but the fanbase definitely knows what's up. SW's talking about one (the Phone Sex song) in the comment above ours. Another, based on the hook, would probably be called "Shots Fired," and there was an ill Mr. Voodoo solo song where he starts off, "we bout to do this shit like we used to do in 9-3." Then one I guess one or two are more like musical interludes, because they talk on the track but never actually get into full verses. So I guess that's not such a terrible loss to have been left off, but some of that shelved stuff's gold.

      And I'm super excited for the "more to come!"

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  3. Phone Sex is the real jewel of those unreleased Tommy Boy tracks. I just listened to it again today and it still surprises me how well NE did a smooth, chilled-out sex rap song.

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  4. Has that Mister Voodoo 'Return of the 45 (Relax Your Mind) track ever been released on vinyl? I need that one.

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    1. Yeah, it was a B-side. It's on a white label 12" called "Da' Come Up;" looks like there's some inexpensive copies on discogs.

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    2. Thanks!
      See, the version on Youtube is completely different, almost certainly a different track altogether.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2pt2k2VBpk
      Any ideas?!!!

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    3. Ah yeah, that's a totally different track. That one (the one you linked) is the track from the Tommy Boy shelved album, so we should've gotten it on these 1999 tenth and twentieth albums. But as of now, it's still unreleased.

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  5. Here's a reply from L-Swift himself:

    Guys I want y’all to understand something, whenever y’all hear a track with Me (L-Swift/Swigga) and Abutta and No Voo, those are 2face songs NOT Natural Elements like when Voo is on the Track, we started that policy in 96 as to Not Confuse the Fans or Fool them into thinking it’s NE with All 3 Members, this is y Phonesex was said to sound so “Smooth” as the 2Face Sound is NOT like NE, that particular track was NEVER gonna be on the NE Tommy Boy Album, Tommy Boy prob NEVER even Heard that song as it was recorded in 1997 Before we even signed to them. As far as the Voo Solo Track he decided to NOT put it on there n keep it FULL Group Stuff. As far as Shots Fired we decided to Leave all Stuff with Ka OFF of this Album as (even tho we Still Homies) he got his Own thing going on, And to Respect the Death of Kev (Odd Brawl from Nightbreed n we decided the Content of that song didn’t fit that album. Then there’s a song called “I’m Not Sure” That was gonna have Supercat featured on there n the Hook I layed was just a Reference so we didn’t use that for That Reason. So we Not “Hiding Gems” we have Very Specific Reasons y we didn’t or Did put certain songs. Hope y’all understand what i mean. Peace.

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