The Cellar Is Back Open, People!

Unlike my last post, I had absolutely nothing to do with this release, but I sure am excited for it!  No Sleep/ Gentleman's Relief Records long running Cellar Sounds series of rare and unreleased Nick Wiz productions is back, with the first new volume in over seven years.  Yeah, we recently had that mix CD, but now the series is really restarting, because to be clear, this is not another reissue or anything; Cellar Sounds Volume 6 is another 2-CD collection of 43 full, rare and unreleased tracks from 1992-2000 (with one 2010 bonus track I was quite happy about).

Let's run through the rarities before we get into the truly unreleased stuff.  The first one I clocked was that both sides of UG's 2000 "Do U Know" 12" from Bronx Science are on here.  We get some more tracks from the very hard to find Lyricist Lounge tapes, including two of the "Cypha Sessions" (it's actually a real treat to get these remastered now), two songs from Pudgee's Angel Dust EP, F.O.D.'s "No More" and "Frontline," Main One's collaborative singles "Main Event" "Droppin' Gramma" & "Bring the Drama" 12"s, Gauge's "Insane," and so on.  The biggest surprise was seeing Shabaam Sahdeeq's Rawkus singles on here, "Arabian Nights" and "Every Rhyme I Write," oh and Mad Skillz' "Nod Factor" remix, because those were relatively major releases.

But even if your collection is 100% thorough, and you dismiss all of those as duplicates (color me impressed), that still leaves 24 unreleased tracks by my count.  Some of these are remixes or "original versions" of released songs, like alternate mixes of N-Tyce's "Sure Ya Right" and Emskee's "Black Boys, Baseball Caps & Beepers."  There's an extended version of Pudgee's indie single "U Ain't Know" with DMX now with a verse by Hostile (his cousin, not to be confused with Hostyle of Screwball - whoops!) that was cut off the release version.  Then most of the rest are demos or songs recorded for unfinished projects, like a Moonie D (of FOD) solo joint or a fun promo song Madhouse recorded for the Wendy Williams Show.  Some of these demos are by guys who never came out, but Nick Wiz is a reliably consistent producer, so they're all tight.

A couple of my personal favorites was a particularly hardcore duet between UG and Main One called "Got Luv" and a hype cut called "Bring It" by the Native Assassins, who you should remember from previous Cellar Sounds.  What will surely be the biggest deal for many fans, and yes also one of my favorites, is an unreleased Rakim track, recorded his Seventh Seal album, but criminally left on the cutting room floor.  And that bonus track I mentioned?  Remember when The Cella Dwellas announced they were reuniting and recording with Nick Wiz again?  I guess nothing more ever came of that, sadly, but that one song is on here, and it's so great to finally have it in our collections.

And once again, Nick Wiz writes liner notes for every single song on the booklet.  This release is limited to 400 copies and is already out now.  GRR has also repressed the long out of print Ran Reed compilation, Nick Wiz Presents: Respect the Architect 1992-1998.  It has all the same tracks as the original 2012 release, so you've got another shot if you missed it the first time.  There's a double-LP on black or blue & orange vinyl coming soon; and the CD with the bonus track, which is out as of this writing.

The Lost Omniscenct Tapes

Alright, I'm psyched to be able to share with you guys another release I helped out on!  This is a brand new compilation of vintage, mostly never before heard songs by Omniscence on Gentleman's Relief Records called The Lost Tapes.  It's a limited edition (to 400 copies) CD, and if you're reading this, you can already order it now.  Update 11/22/24: And yes, a vinyl LP version is coming soon, too.

This collection is twenty tracks deep, nineteen of which were recorded between 1994 and 1998... although, strictly speaking, the first  and last are an intro and outro.  But the outro does feature Omni freestyling, and they were both produced in '95 with a smooth beat by Fanatic; so we'll count them as one song.  So that's eighteen songs from the 90s, and one self-produced track Omni recorded in 2002, where he was starting to test the waters for his comeback.  That song is called "Testin' the Waters."

The enclosed booklet has some great notes by Omniscence himself, where he helpfully explains that these songs are largely from three distinct eras.  The first are tracks originally recorded for Raw Factor, but the label rejected because they were literally too raw and not commercial enough.  Then you've got some tracks from '96 with a little harder edge ("I'd been scorned by the industry") he made for a 6th Boro compilation.  Then there are a few songs from '97-'98 that he recorded in NY as a demo he shopped around, but that otherwise went completely unheard.  And finally, there are a couple loosies, like two songs he recorded with Mixmasta D and that 2002 comeback track.

So what did I do?  I basically contributed one song.  If you've followed along with my Omniscence coverage, you might recall that I have an old Raw Factor promo EP with one song (called "Keep Giving Me Love") that had still never been released anywhere, despite the recovery and eventual release of the long lost Raw Factor album.  I now realize it must have been one of those tracks the label stupidly didn't want.  I described it in my initial post as one of the tightest tracks, and now you can finally hear it for yourselves.  In fact, you can hear two versions, because it turns out mine was a later release of a demo they already had called "The Flav's About To Drop," with the same raps and instrumental, but a completely different hook and some other subtle variations.  The Lost Tapes includes both.

There are a couple other points where you'll hear verses or elements repeat across songs here, because these were all unreleased tracks, so why not recycle something from them?  You know, the same situation as the Children of the Corn album Dust & Dope was able to release.  But it's pretty minimal.  This is a satisfyingly full and diverse album.  I said these were mostly unheard songs earlier because four of them were already featured on the 2015 Dope Folks EP Elektra Emancipation: No A&R and No R&B Niggas In the Studio, but this is their first time on CD at least.  And we have the original version of "This Year," a song that was titled "Dick Suck" on the Raw Factor album, with an entirely different instrumental.

Overall, Omni fans should be delighted.  Lots of lost music has been uncovered, and this isn't a case of the final, weakest scraps.  They might be the final ones, but they're as strong as any previous Omniscence record.  Most of the production's by Fanatic, and there are a handful of guest spots by the usual suspects.  Some of these songs could make the 'Greatest Hits.'

And if you missed it the first go around, GRR is also repressing Omni's long out of print God Hour album from 2014.  Now, if you'll recall that started out as an EP of brand new (at the time) Omniscence music flushed out to an LP by the inclusion of remixes for every single song.  And the CD version expanded it to 22 songs by also including his 2012 "Raw Factor 2.0" single and his 2013 Sharp Objects EP, in a big 2-disc set.  Well, this 2024 reissue is now a single CD, but it still includes all 22 songs from across the three releases.  It's also a limited edition (to 250 copies) and available as of this writing (in fact, I think you can get both releases cheaper as a bundle), but it's not a perfect one-to-one.

The original release was a 2-disc set in a digipack.  This new one is a single disc in a jewel case.  It still has all 22 tracks from the three releases; but it's missing the four uncredited bonus tracks: additional remixes of "Raw Factor 2.0," "Ease My Mind," "Letter To the Better" and "Welcome" that had mostly been cassette exclusives prior to that.  You still get two versions of every song from all three releases on one disc, so it's pretty packed and more than enough for most fans, I'm sure.  But serious collectors should be aware that the original's a little preferable.  ...And serious serious collectors will have those bonus remixes on their initial releases anyway, so I guess it's a pretty niche distinction.  But still.  Just so ya know.