Ice-T Meets The Grinch

(Happy holidays, everyone!  Youtube version is here.)

War Declares Ice-T Is OK, Too

"Rap Declares War" wasn't War's first affair with hip-hop. Back in 1989, Ice-T tucked an unexpected remix on the B-side of one of his less attention-getting singles. Freedom Of Speech... Just Watch What You Say was a big album for Ice, despite not having any big singles. The biggest was his posse cut "What Ya Wanna Do," which at least got some MTV play; but for the most part he was blowing up without the boost of another "High Rollers." You might be surprised to learn that there even was a single for "Lethal Weapon," I just barely remember it, because there was a video for it with one of the worst examples of somebody pretending to play a sampled instrument, since the saxophone carrying bikini model in Biz Markie's "The Vapors."

Still, it's a tight track. Ice comes as hard and fast as he can over a hot and really dark beat by the underrated Afrika Islam. With another MC, this song could've been a hip-hop masterpiece (it feels like it belongs on Eric B & Rakim's Let the Rhythm Hit Em), but it's still pretty solid. There were two 12" singles for it (not counting promo versions and foreign versions, of course). This particular one comes in a lavish picture cover, includes the Instrumental (yay!) and another album track called "This One's for Me" on the B-side. That one's okay, he has a kinda interesting verse talking (nicely) about Public Enemy; but overall it's kinda forgettable.

But there's one more track on that 12". A remix of "Heartbeat." Remember "Heartbeat?" It was on his previous album, Power. It always stood out as one of the stronger tracks on that album, probably because it made very heavy use of a War track, also called "Heartbeat." It uses the main looped groove, and even War's vocals in the background and on the hook. And in 1989, Ice brought it back as a B-side, remixed with War themselves.

This 12" Remix turns it into a real, live jam session. It's a full eight minutes long, and features War again performing their classic material without Ice-T jumping in until almost the two minute mark. It still uses the same smooth bassline and basic break, but adds tons of additional instrumentation and even percussion to the proceedings. Every time Ice breaks for a hook, it turns into a War concert.

The only disappointment is that they took out Evil E's scratching on the breakdown. What, were they afraid the song would run long? I think they could've safely pushed it to 8:20 to hang onto one of the original's best parts.  ...I mean, I get what they're doing. And to be fair, it's kinda cool... they remake the part where Evil E is cutting up War's famous chorus by singing it themselves, but echoing the way it was chopped up by E's cuts. But, I still think they coulda left the cuts in. It would've made the song just that extra bit even better.

Anyway, it's still a pretty awesome remix. And for as much as War is allowed to strut their stuff and have this song act like a lesson in War appreciation, it never gets away from Ice or the original version from Power. This isn't War over-running Ice-T. Instead it's like they took the original and just exploded it, giving it a much lusher, richer form by calling in the original players to bring it to life. Because that's exactly what they did.

What's cool, too, is that Ice-T changes the final lines of the song. The vocals are the same all the way through up 'till then, so you're not expecting any kind of lyrical remix. In fact, if you think about it, the lyrics don't seem to fit the remix as well, since he's talking about E's cuts, spinning the record, and making the beat with Islam. But then, where the original version closed out its third verse with the lines:

"Break out the Dom and pop the corks.
I catch a flight to New York;
Hit the LQ, watch Red spin...
(It's closed!) Brooklyn strikes again."

Ice switches it up to:

"Break out the Dom and pop the cork.
Catch a flight to New York;
Back to LA by car,
Remake the 'Heartbeat' track with War."

What a cool surprise. If you feel classically west coast hip-hop, you'll dig this. It sounds really good. Definitely pick it up. And since "Lethal Weapon" is such a low-key single*, you can get it super cheap. This plus the "Lethal Weapon" instrumental and a crazy picture cover? What a great, little sleeper.


*This "Heartbeat" remix was also later given its own promo 12", since I guess Warner couldn't believe Ice was going to just throw this away so under the radar.

Ice-O-Tek-A-Mix

So blogging about Ice-T the other week has got me revisiting all his old albums. Lots of fresh production on Rhyme Pays, and Power still has me wanting to skip right to "High Rollers." But what about the stuff even further back than that? Before he was a gangsta rapper on Warner Bros/Sire Records?  Well, fortunately, I have a compilation of a bunch of that stuff I could rock in the car, and... it's more interesting than I remember it.

The compilation I'm talking about is called The Classic Collection, released on Rhino and Excello Records in 1993. It's pretty cool. It compiles the early singles Ice-T released on Saturn, Electrobeat and Techno Hop Records before he signed with Warner Bros and became the icon he is today.  These records are a lot of fun, because he's on some really old school breakin' stuff, which at first seems pretty far removed from his more famous Iceberg Slim-inspired styles (though, listening to all his early material, you can hear him bridge that gap pretty naturally). This is the Ice-T who dressed in crazy outfits, rapped about graffiti and performed elaborate break dance routines in early hip-hop movies. It's really good times, and would probably surprise the heck out of people who only know him for songs like "Colors." "Body Rock," in fact, is probably my favorite Ice-T song ever.

But for some reason - maybe rights issues, or maybe Rhino just wasn't up on Ice's history well enough to know about them - they leave out all the stuff Ice did as a member of The Radio Crew and the records where his producer, Chris "The Glove" Taylor got top billing. So, it's not a terribly complete collection. In fact, it winds up being pretty short.

So, what is Rhino to do? Fill! Now, they don't go quite as far as Macola Records and steal an entire other group's songs and pass it off as the main artist; but they still manage to come up with some pretty quirky padding. First off they include some extra 12" stuff, which is what you'd expect a compilation to do when it's short on material (or, like Traffic, just looking to be as completist as possible)... So, not only is his 1983 track "The Coldest Rap" on here, but so is "Cold Wind Madness (The Coldest Rap Pt 2)," even though "Pt 2" is really just the dub mix of the original, and not a new song with new lyrics, etc. We get "Dog'n the Wax (Ya Don't Quit Pt 2)" which actually is a proper, new song that follows "Ya Don't Quit" (also present), but then we get "Iceapella" as well, which is just the acapella mix of "Dog'n the Wax" from the original vinyl (even though the rather extensive liner notes write about it as if it's a proper song on its own).

But there's nothing unusual or unwelcome about that.  I mean, I'd rather have the Radio Crew songs than dub and acapella mixes; but still, you expect that stuff.  Now, here's what you don't expect.

The album starts off with "Ice-A-Mix." This is an original mix recorded for this compilation, produced by Al Eaton (who's produced a bunch of west coast stuff), with cuts by DJ Rob-Scene (whoever that is). They basically make a little mega-mix of the Ice-T records you're going to hear later on this compilation, something Rhino Records did a lot of on compilations they put out in the 90's. Did I say Al Eaton produced it? Well, that's what the liner notes say. But, interestingly, this mix was actually released as a 12" single (okay...), and there the credit is given to DJ Flash. This makes more sense, because he did a bunch of this stuff for these compilations around this time (including those Rock On Crew ones). It's not bad, but not too exciting, as it mostly just features beats and verses we're about to hear in a few seconds anyway. The most noteworthy thing about it is the very dramatic trumpet solo that jumps in about midway through by a guy named Tim Larkin. I can't exactly say it blends in seamlessly - it sticks out like a sore thumb against these simple, old school programmed drum patterns; but it's not bad. Just odd.

But that's not as weird as what we get on the B-side, "Ice-O-Tek." This one's an original dance track that throws in a couple of random Ice-T vocal snippets "my name is Ice-T" and sporadically drops them over a very unrelated, poppy techno track. Seriously, even Technotronic would be like, "this isn't street enough to be on our album." It's not bad, though, in a very upbeat, bubbly sort of way; but man has it ended up on the wrong side of the streets amid Ice-T tracks like "Killers" and "6 In the Mornin'."

What? "6 In the Mornin'" is on here? Yup. Even though it's on Rhyme Pays on Warner Bros, it's here, too. That actually fits, because before it appeared on Rhyme Pays, it was released as the B-side to "Dog'n the Wax" on Techno Hop. And it's one of his greatest hits, so I'm not complaining that it's here, although it's a little redundant having it on both albums. I'm just surprised they could put it on here, since it's now the property of Warner Bros.

Plus, redundant or not, like I said, Rhino needed to pad. Honestly, if you took all the random shit like that and "Ice-O-Tek" off of here, you'd have a one-sided tape. It's that short - five songs. The fact of the matter is that, if you don't include the stuff Ice did with Chris Taylor/ Radio Crew, Ice just didn't release enough unsigned material to fill an album. In fact, if not a one-sided tape, I wish they would've at least put those five songs all on one side, and the odds and ends on the flip. That way you could listen to all that stuff through in a quick listen like an EP (and visit the other stuff on those rare days you're feeling adventurous). But instead, they mix it all together, so you're constantly having to fast-forward or skip ahead on your CD player. But still, unless you're going to collect all the original 12"s, this is worth picking up.

Now, interestingly, Blue Dolphin released an alternate version of this in 1996 with a different track-listing called Cold As Ice. I call this an alternate version, as opposed to just another compilation of early Ice-T tracks, because not only are many of the songs the same on both albums, but it even includes the "Ice-A-Mix" recorded specifically for Rhino's album. Cold As Ice includes those Chris Taylor/ Ice-T tracks from the the Breakin' and Breakin' 2 soundtracks like "Reckless" and "Go Off" (titled "Party People" here), which is a big plus. In fact, I'd say forget about The Classics Collection and rock this, except, frustratingly, they don't include "Ya Don't Quit" or "Dog'n the Wax," which are great, essential Ice-T classics. Why on Earth did they include shit like "Ice-O-Mix" and the dub version of "Coldest Rap" and leave those off? It could've been the definitive version, but instead it's just a weird, alternate version that's less desirable than the first Rhino comp, because it's missing two of the five most important songs. Bad, dolphin, bad!

Oh well, like I said, this is still a pretty handy, definitely enjoyable, collection if you aren't quite prepared to go digging for all the original 12"s. There's still room for a really definitive collection, though, that would include all this stuff, the Breakin' stuff, and the Radio Crew songs into one really solid album. And those crazy, original mixes do add to the fun, even if they're cheesy as Hell. And I don't think anybody's going to dig for that 12"!

Ice-T Gets Wrecked

Oh, Ice-T. What to say about Ice-T? I really like his early B-boy stuff ("The Coldest Rap," "Dog'n the Wax"), and when he first developed the gangsta style it was sick. "6 N the Mornin'," "High Rollers," "Colors." But that's probably about where his career should have ended.

It didn't, though. In fact, for mainstream audiences, he was just coming onto the scene, with his big-time controversial material. And, to be fair, he still did some decent stuff in those days... I already blogged about one of my favorites from that era, and Melle Mel-did some solid song-writing for him on "The Tower." But as far as I was concerned, Ice may have been the masthead for The Rhyme Syndicate, but he was the least interesting artist on the roster. His almost spoken word style of delivery drifted further from more a traditional (and enjoyable) rap flow, and his schtick always struck me as pretty thin even before he wore it into the ground with album after album. Warner Brothers may've dropped him because of "Cop Killer," but I suspect, if that had never happened, his time would've been short there anyway.

But "Cop Killer" was a huge deal, and so Ice was immediately picked up by Priority, who ate that kinda publicity up, and Ice's career was sustained for years and years, despite never having another hit record. The biggest of those post-Warner Brothers albums was Home Invasion, because it was first - in fact, the first single ("Gotta Lotta Love") actually came out on first on Sire/Warners, and then again on Priority; that's right when the switch happened. So, when this third single dropped in 1993, the writing was already on the wall: he might push out albums for years and years to come (further aided by his later success in television and movies as an actor), but the days of him making "relevant" music was over.

But it's kind of interesting to see what he got up to when he was off the radar. Ice opted to jump into the trend of the time, and that trend was the east coast hardcore backpacker... You know, like Young MC put on the tough image for his What's the Flavor album. Okay, maybe that's a little harsh. Think more EPMD putting on their hoodies to diss crossovers or Run DMC when they hung up their iconic style to dress and act like Naughty By Nature for their practically final album (or, for that matter, The New Style dressing and acting like Naughty By Nature haha). This was that time. Black Moon and co. were jumping off, Tim Dog was getting wreck with Krs One, etc.

Now, "I Ain't New Ta This" is right off the album, and really only partially in that What's the Flavor mode. He actually manages to work the phrase "it's time to get wrecked" into two of his verses (that's not really a good thing, just to be clear), and the production is very much of that time and style, with deep but clearly strummed bass notes, and DITC-like drums (Lord Finesse was in The Rhyme Syndicate, so that kind of instrumental connection to his style makes sense). In fact, the production here is pretty tight, . It's by DJ Aladdin, who also drops in some nice but not too in your face scratching. It really sounds like a New York record, except Ice-T just isn't up to the track. I'd love to have heard Big L or Pun on this. Fortunately the 12" includes the instrumental, so if you're feeling creative, you can play with those possibilities. But on it's own terms, the beat feels like a missed opportunity, and you get the impression that some label executive accidentally released album filler as a single.

What compelled me to pick this single up, though, was the exclusive B-side: "Mixed Up" featuring SLJ of Wrecked Dialect. Now, that's a 90's sounding group name if ever I heard one. So, who are Wrecked Dialect? No clue, as they don't seem to have any records or other appearances. But I sure know who SLJ is. Heck, just look at the credits on this single and you'll get the idea - he's Ice and Aladdin's production partner, who produced the majority of this and their previous album with them. He has a few other west coast production credits from around that time, but he's much better known today as Shafiq Husayn of Sa Ra. Now, he just does R&B neo-soul funk kinda stuff, so it's not really my thing. But here he spitting like a NY hardcore backpacker, credited as a member of Wrecked Dialect. Who knows, maybe that was Sa Ra's original name before they established themselves. Or maybe Ice just made it up to give him some underground rep and compel east coaster heads to get curious and pick up the single. Hell, I fell for it.

And SLJ plays that role to the hilt. He even rhymes "mystical... spiritual... lyrical." They go back and forth trading verses with a lot of enthusiasm, but he's not all that impressive; and he winds up being outshone by Ice-T, who comes even harder on this one. So hard, in fact, it feels a little too over the top ridiculous, like he's fronting, especially since he plays it so straight and earnest:

"One, two, three,
It's time to flip with the O.G.
Gangsta, banga,
Underground slanga
Of the murderous rhymes your moms hates.
Motherfuck the KKK and Daryl Gates.
Give me the microphone now, god damn it,
So I can blow it, throw it,
Rip it, wreck it, pimp it, ho it!
...
I got a bullet with your name on it,
Want it?
Knock your grill out,
Fill it with gold and pawn it.
Oh my god!
This nigga's hard, call the bomb squad.
Too late, I detonate,
Obliterate three states!
Boom!

I got a fucking slow leak in my damn brain
And this shit's drippin' out; I'm damn near insane.
...
What's up? You wanna try to focus your sights on the mic?
This nigga can flip scripts all night.Yeah! I wrecks shit nice!
The microphone smokes like dry ice.
Bang nigga, bang nigga, I'm a known gang figure,
Catch so many bodies, need to my trunk bigger. (Ha!)"

This single actually kinda reminds of when Shaq started rapping (really, can't you just hear him kicking those rhymes above?), and was out to prove he could come as "lyrical" as any real MCs... He wasn't totally off-base, his intent was in the right place, and he got good collaborators and everything. But he just couldn't carry it off like said real MCs, and it wound up sounding just a little too corny to listen to unironically (you can almost make a drinking game out of the times Ice uses the word "wreck").

On the other hand, to its credit, it does feel like Ice is trying to lay claim to his more pure, hip-hop roots after having possibly drifted away with the pop success and heavy metal projects. The A-side in particular feels in some ways like the darker successor to the short "Fried Chicken" track from O.G. But unfortunately it's too clear that he's desperately cycling through all the tropes of what's popular at the time. It's cool if you're open-minded and interested in it as a semi-successful experiment that never quite takes off. But the instrumental's really dope (for the A-side; the B-side's alright but nothing special), so get this 12" for that if you're up to making a remix with somebody else's acapella.

Take a Drive With The Zulu Kings

If you've ever wondered why Busy Bee had a Rhyme Syndicate logo on his second album, or how it came that Melle Mel was writing songs for Ice-T ("The Tower); it originates back to a dope but short-lived indie label called Posse Records. There, way back in 1986, Syndicate producer Afrika Islam combined forces with Melle and his crew to form Afrika & The Zulu Kings.

This single is called "Cars," and it's a pretty simple, old school song about... cars. It features Melle Mel, Ice-T, and Bronx Style Bob back when he rapped instead of sang. It's of course produced by Afrika, although all the other members share co-production credit. And, interestingly, Grandmaster Caz gets credit for mixing this record with Afrika.

This song follows a fun structure: it's just a dope (though very dated) instrumental - drum machine beats, a large groovy bassline, and lots of horn stabs, bells, cuts and change-ups - and at first it goes your traditional: MC's verse, hook, MC's verse, hook... but soon they're skipping the hook all together, and each MC is just jumping on top of the other, grabbing the mic. There's even a few skits mixed in where they talk about their cars over the beat, so you never know what's coming next.

The song features a lot of talent, obviously; but are ultimately light, casual songs, as opposed to anybody really flexing their skills or kicking important messages. Melle Mel starts it out, sounding like he did on his classic records with The Furious Five, shouting out all the types of cars, "I drove a Chevy and even a Ford; I pushed a Lincoln Continental, a Honda Accord, limousines, a Porsche Audi, a Honda Seville, a Savannah Brougham and a Coup Deville. You ride a Saab or a Subaru, a Corvette or a BMW. Now you're movin' like a car stayin' up to par. You're seen even parkin' a Mercedes, you're a superstar! But you are what ya are, behind the wheel. I never ever let a car control how I feel. You feel you're big time 'cause you're driving a Rolls? Well, you better watch out for telephone poles!"

And of course Ice-T immediately takes it to the west coast, "Word! This is all I got to say: you gotta have a car if you live in LA." ...So they're not out to impress with their lyrics, but if you pay attention to the writing, you can still see why these guys are better than their less successful peers.

There's just the one song on here; though it comes in vocal (called he Zulu Club Mix), Zulu Dub and Zulu Beats versions. But this is not the only collaborative release of Afrika & The Zulu Kings... they released a second single that same year called "The Beach," which is equally fun.

Party, Party!

What's not to love about this record? This is Ice-T's epic Rhyme Syndicate posse cut from his album, Freedom Of Speech... Just Watch What You Say that dropped in 1990 on Warner Bros/ Sire Records. It's got an exclusive B-side remix, and as you can see it comes in a spiffy picture cover.

So yeah, the song is called "What Ya Wanna Do?" It's produced by Ice-T and Afrika Islam and is, as the back cover puts it, "CUT THE !&*!&%!! UP" by DJ Evil E. It features the full-length LP Version (a whopping 9 minutes) and the shorter Edit (the one they used for the video etc.). There's also an instrumental, which is a little bit longer than the radio edit, but shorter than the LP version.

It's a super fun joint, with a cracking break with hand-claps and a little Miami-style percussion, a deep groovy bassline and a funky guitar loop. It's a pretty simple but entirely effective beat that plays the background for a plethora of MCs to just drop freestyle rhymes. The entire line-up is: Randy Mac, Nat the Cat (with a sick fast rap style), The Syndicate sniper Donald D, who kicks the infamously fun rap about his rodent problem:

"There's a mouse in my house, so I bought a cat.
The cat ran away, 'cause now there's a rat.
I'm on the attack with my baseball bat...
That one rat brought many others back.
All through my house I set up traps;
It seem like the rats have a map.
But nowadays I don't know how to act,
So now I feed the rats crack."

...Bronx Style Bob ("Life ain't nothin' but a piece of existence"), Hen Gee, Shakell Shabazz, old school legend Toddy Tee, Everlast (who lazily recycles a verse from his single, "I Got the Knack"), MC Taste and Divine Styler. In the Edit, each MC kicks 1 verse (except Ice, who kicks 2), but in the full-length version, everyone comes back for a second verse (third in Ice's case). What's interesting is that the Edit doesn't just play the first "round" of verses or the second, but selectively picks what I guess they consider to be the best verse from each MC, so you get, for example, Randy Mac's first verse, then Nat the Cat's second and then Bronx Style Bob's first verse again.

Finally, we hit the exclusive remix, a Radio Remix of "The Girl Tried To Kill Me." Remember the over-the-top rock & roll style sex anthem Ice ended his album with? Well, this is that, but this remix was clearly made for the heads who thought the original wasn't hip-hop enough. This one still has some of the same guitar riffs (and a big solo finish), but the emphasis is much more on the drums and all than the album version, which was a pretty substantial genre cross-over. Which version you'll prefer will probably depend on how tolerant you are of rock music... the original probably lends itself more to the subject matter and Ice's yelly style, but this is definitely on a more head-nodding B-Boy tip. So I gotta go with the remix.

So, you know, if you've already got the album, then getting "What Ya Wanna Do?" isn't such a coup... the Instrumental is nice, but the Edit doesn't add much value, except maybe for historical purposes. But it's also got the remix of "Girl" and the pic cover and all, so it's a worthwhile crate staple considering it can usually be had for peanuts.

Legends of Hip Hop

"LEGENDS OF HIP HOP describes a project that includes more than 35 hiphop legends from the first hour veterans to the recent stars. It includes names like Bambaataa, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, Ice-T... just to mention a few. The album was based on an idea to connect rap and hiphop greats from both the old and new skool[sic.] scene into one big project. The highlight of the album is the track 'The Fifth Element' which is performmed[sic.] by 34 hiphop legends."

That's the introduction to an album that I can't believe has somehow managed to be pretty much never written about. Legends of Hip Hop came out in 2002 on Absolut Records. Yes, like the vodka. A full-length album that features all original (well, almost... more on that later) material by such great big names in hip-hop that somehow managed to fly completely under the radar? How? Why?

Well, the album was put together by Kurtis Blow, in association with his Legends of Hip Hip old school tours. Blow co-produced all the music on this album with two guys named Informer and DJ Buck. They utilize a lot of live instrumentation, too... the liner notes credit musicians for guitars, trumpets, sax, a couple of violins and a viola. So, how is it? What exactly do we have here?

Ok, let's start with the "highlight of the album" (according to the liner notes quoted above... I actually disagree), the mega-posse cut "The Fifth Element." 34 hip-hop legends. That's pretty impressive, right? And the actual list will probably impress you more: Melle Mel, Ice-T, Flava Flav, Cheeks, Special K, Bambaataa, Run, Smooth Approach, Sha-Rock, Doc Ice, Busy Bee, Whodini, Raheem, Reggie Reg, Grandmaster Caz, DLB, LA Sunshine, Grand Puba, Pete DJ Jones, Kurtis Blow, Hollywood, Eddie Cheeba, Big Daddy Kane, Dano, Ceelo (as in Goodie Mob, yeah), Waterbed Kev, Speech, Kidd Creole, Grand Wizard Theodore, Dota Rock, Rakim & DJ Kool Herc. That's not a bunch of nobodies peppered with a few names, that's an incredible assembly of an all-star line-up!

...But, wait. The song's only four minutes long. And it's got a recurring hook, which takes up almost 50% of the song. And, half those guys are DJs, how do they rap on this track?

Well, if you guessed that everybody is given about 6-8 words to perform, you'd be right! But you didn't guess that, did you? Because that would be so ridiculously wack, you ruled it out before the thought could even fully form in your mind, right? But it's what they did. Excited to hear a Rakim feature you never heard before? Wanna read the lyrics? Well, here ya go:

"Ya owe it to yourself; get your education."

...That was it. That was the entirety of his contribution. And his was longer than a lot of the others!

So, yeah. They call it the "highlight of the album." They even include two mixes on here, the original and "Beathoavenz RMX," which liberally samples some Beethoven. I call it a big, fat "who cares?"

But the rest of the album is much more interesting. Most (plus a few other dudes) of the artists featured on that silly posse cut turn up again on this album to perform all new songs. Most are collaborations you've never seen happen before and are pretty interesting. Raheem, Grandmaster Caz and Shinehead provide a song called "Be 4," Ice-T, Chilli Mac and Rakim perform "Game of Life," Reggie Reg, Skeeta Ranks, Jalil, Ecstasy and Doc Ice do "Shake Them Hips," etc. Here we actually get to hear these artists get a chance to do something!

Just for the record, the other artists who turn up on this album are: Thug Nation, Kurupt, Harry Balz (don't know who that is? He's the other half of One and One, who we last heard from on Next Plateau Records in 1997!), The Ying Yang Twins, Steph Lova, T.O.P., GQ, and Lovebug Starski.

So, how are these songs? Well, they're varied... there's some nice lyrical performances, a variety of concepts and a good mix of styles. The production team of Blow, Informer and Buck I'm sure doesn't have you at the edge of your seat, but they're at least attempting something creatively different that's still got a traditional hip-hop vibe. It's not a great album, but guys like Ice-T, Melle, Sha-Rock, Kane, and others do drop some head-nodding verses. Flava Flav provides an amusingly bugged hook to "Old School Ball," with a faux British accent. The live instrumentation helps keep things interesting and some songs have nice cuts, too. It's a mixed bag, certainly; but a lot of this is really better than you jaded vets would expect.

To add to that mixed bag feeling, though, we have to address why Eminem and Royce da 5'9's names are on the cover. Well, "Nuttin To Do" by Bad Meets Evil is on here. Yes, the song from their '98 12" in Game Recordings. Why? I dunno. More interestingly, though, is "Bad Meets Evil - New Shrooms Mix." Yeah, Blow and team actually do their own, exclusive remix of the song from the Slim Shady LP. It's, uh... yeah, it's pretty corny.

But except for those two tracks and one other - this album also features Justine Simmons' dance tune "Praise My DJ's" featuring Run that originally dropped in 2000 - this is all new, original material, reminiscent of the noteworthy Raiders Of the Lost Art compilation released in 1994.

Now, in addition to this album, there are three related releases you should probably know about:

1) A 12" release of "The Fifth Element," which includes the original version and the Beathoavenz Remix version that's featured on this disc, as well as four more remixes (specifically: Sleepwalker Remix, Efe & Leeroy Remix, Nasty Remix and the Double Remix). Interesting, but I never picked this up, because frankly changing the beat wouldn't fix what's wrong with this song.

2) Another, completely unrelated hip-hop compilation called Legends of Hip Hop, which is just a generic collection of songs by 2 Live Crew, Ice-T and The World Class Wreckin' Crew on a label called Blue Dolphin. They're entirely unrelated save for the coincidentally matching title, so you can go ahead and disregard it... just be careful if you're ordering online that you know which one you're getting.

3) A 2-disc version that was released in Europe. Disc 1 is essentially the same as the US version, except it's missing the Bad Meets Evil remix, and instead features the Sleepwalker Remix of "Fifth Element" (from the 12" above). The second disc is then just another generic compilation of pre-existing hip-hop songs, this time basically a greatest hits of rap, featuring stuff like "Express Yourself" by NWA and "Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. Personally, I'd stick with the single-disc US version, since it has the exclusive Bad Meets Evil remix, and if you really want the "Fifth Element," remix you could get the 12".

So, yeah. It's not a great album, but it has some worthwhile material. And with all the talent involved, it deserves at least to be talked about.

Where They Are Now

This Is It, Y'all. Mp3s have been floating around the 'net for a while, but the actual record finally just came out: "Where Are They Now," the remixes. In fact, it's a Japan-only limited edition 12" on Ill Will Records (Nas's sub-label imprint), so snatch it while you can.

So, what's the big deal about a remix 12" of a mediocre (at best) Nas song? After all, Hip-Hop Is Dead is just one more in an increasingly long series of dull and disappointing follow-ups to Illmatic, and "Where Are They Now" was one of the worst songs on there. The beat was dope, but very familiar: James Brown's "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved," which has been used in about a bajillion previous hip-hop records, from Kool G Rap's "Poison," to the most similar that I can think of, Professor Griff's "Pawns In the Game" (let's face it: essentially, this is the instrumental to "Pawns In the Game"). It's still damn good, though; and this beat would be fine - one of Nas's best even, though that's saying very little - if it wasn't for the rhymes. Yes, "Where Are They Now" is another one of those boring, lifeless name-dropping songs; where an MC does nothing but list the names of other MCs in the hopes that some of their "street cred" rubs off on them. 2Pac did it, Big Daddy Kane did it, Bahamadia did it, Edan did it; everybody's done it. It's not original, engaging, entertaining or thoughtful; it's just... a list. It's like when hip-hop albums had those boring shout-out tracks at the end, only here they're right smack in the middle and the artists think it makes them cool or something. Who the heck wants a remix of that?

Of course, most of you reading this already know the punch-line... As I say, this has been on the internet for months. But now the actual record has been released. Why is this such a must-have? Because of the line-up!

"Where Are They Now (90's Remix)" features Redhead Kingpin, Rob Base, Spinderella, Father MC, Monie Love, Mike G of the Jungle Brothers, EST of Three Times Dope, Positive K, Krazy from Das EFX, Mr. DoItAll from Lords of the Underground, Chip-Fu from the Fu-Shcnickens and Dres from Blacksheep! Nas doesn't even rap on this; he just "hosts" it, saying a few words between every couple of verses. Instead he's just found all (well, not all... but a lot) of the MCs he name-dropped on the album cut and gave them eight bars each to shine on this new, massive posse cut. The instrumental keeps the James Brown track, but blends in the instrumentals form each MC's greatest hit - sometimes more than one, even - during their verse (most of the time it works really well, though a few times they don't gel together as well as the rest... for example, "Monie In the Middle" mixes in hot, but trying to get "I Got a Man" in there feels a little awkward).

So, you've got the 90's remix, plus the instrumental, then you flip the record over and damn! "Where Are They Now (80's Remix)," which is formatted the same way and features MC Shan, Raheem of the Furious Five, Doctor Ice and Kangol of UTFO, Kool Moe Dee, Sha Rock of US Girls and The Funky Four + One, Tito of the Fearless Four, Grandmaster Caz, LinQue, Dana Dane, Pebblee Poo (remember? She did "Fly Guy," the answer record to the Boogie Boys' "Fly Girl") of the Masterdon Committee and Just-Ice!

Then there's "Where Are They Now (West Coast Remix)," which gives up on the decidedly east-coast sounding James Brown foundation in favor of a more mellow track for the West Coast MCs: Breeze, Kam, King Tee, Candyman, Threat, Ice-T, Sir Mix-A-Lot and the Conscious Daughters. It's a definite head-nodder, but they've also forgone the technique of blending in each MC's previous hit(s) to the instrumental, which is a little disappointing. Guess they got a little lazy by remix #3, but it's still cool; you won't really miss it.

Now, I say how can you not need this record just looking at those line-ups? And most of the MCs come off well, too (even the ones that don't instill much faith based on their past output). Stand outs for me would be: Redhead Kingpin, Shan, Doc Ice, Kool Moe Dee and Breeze; but I'm sure everybody will have their own favorites. I made two previous posts (here and here), naming what I feel are the two essential, full-length albums of 2007 to date. Well, this would be one of the two essential 12" singles of 2007 (the other being Master Ace & Marco Polo's "Nostalgia;" except, lamely, it only features the clean/edited version), definitely a necessity.