Master P Vs. King Tee & Ice Cube

(Youtube version is here.)

The Return Of King Tee!

King Tee is back!  If you haven't heard, King Tee has released a new album.  I mean, you might argue that this is a mixtape rather than a proper album. He did release it first online as a free download billed as a mixtape in 2012. It's not really mixed, but a couple songs do bleed into each other (I hate that, by the way), and it is even referred to as a mixtape in the music itself at one point. But this is now a proper, physical CD version, released in 2013, available all over, including amazon, who has it listed as a "Collector's Edition, Limited Edition, Limited Collector's Edition." That's going a bit overboard, but it is more legitimate now, right?

And this is exciting, because this is his first new album (or mixtape... it's not like he's been releasing those over the years) since his 1998 Aftermath album barely came out in 2002. I mean, yeah there was The Ruthless Chronicles in '04, but that wasn't a real album. It was just a bunch of tracks from Thy Kingdom Come and some other random odds and ends. That was a huge mess (which I broke down here); but the the short version is he hasn't really come out with a solid batch of new material since the 90s until now.

 And it's.... pretty good. A lot of the production feels cheap, and again it's top heavy with cameos: We've got: MC Eiht, Big 2 da Boy, Yung Gold, Xzibit, Silky Slim, Butch Cassidy, Eastwood, BG Knoccout, Roc C, Sean Price, Rampage, Valle Ru, 1st Generation, Short Khop; Mitchy Slick, Tha Relitivez, Staycee Adamz (hook girl), Mac Lucci, Brevi, 2nd II None, Rapheal Saddiq, C-Bo, Matthew Aaron (hook guy), Deadly Threat, MC Chill, Ruff Dogg, 1 Punch, Jay da Man, J-Ro, Roscoe, Ras Kass, Styliztik Jonez, Tristate, and Dresta. And that doesn't even include the guys' whose voices you just hear in the skits or overdubs. Some of those names are better news than others, but overall it's the same issue Kingdom Come had - Tee buries himself beneath a sea of friends. Get some confidence, bro!

When it works, though, it's dope. "Soul Plate" has Tee reuniting with Threat - plus the long lost MC Chill (yeah, the one originally from CMW), over a hard, musical track and some nice little DJ slices for a hook. Shit is serious and atmospheric; these OG's ain't playin'. "Good To Ya" sounds more like a 2nd II None song featuring Tee than the other way around; but that's still a good thing. The only drawback is, again, the production feels a bit chintzy. A little sample would've gone a long way*; but it's still a head nodder. And Tee does at least keep one song for himself, the opener called "The Return" where Tee lays down the law. He's still the great King T(ee).

Other times, he falls short. The beat for "I'm Gone" just feels like a trendy mess of Tee trying to keep up with whatever the kids are listening to these days, and winds up producing some pretty generic Youtube fodder. He's got two versions of the same song in a row: "Sharkz In da Watah" and "Sharkz (Suwoopmix)." It has different guests and different verses, but it's the same beat. He probably should've just mashed them together into one longer song, but it's really not that great to begin with. And the last song, "A Letter To My Homeboyz" is...just Dresta by himself? Tee's not even on it! It's also pretty damn sappy.

So Still Trifflin' has been upgraded to a "Collector's Edition, Limited Edition, Limited Collector's Edition." If you're a Tee fan, the good material stuff is enough to make it worth the purchase. Especially since a Tee release is a rare thing now. Haley's comet may pass by before we get another one. But the content of this album definitely feels like a mixtape, and even though I'm not optimistic about it, my fingers are crossed that this really is a prelude to something more.


*They've gotta be avoiding sampling for budgetary reasons, which is a definite detriment, but the album is loaded with vocal samples on the hooks and stuff... There's a ton, and some very conspicuous, easy to recognize stuff. Surely those are just as copywritten? If you're willing to risk that, why not make the music better while you're at it?

Before Them, Compton Rap Wasn't Shit

You want to be let in on a nice, overlooked and under-rated 12"? Ok, here's "Where You From?" by Dazzie Dee. Why is it so overlooked and under-rated? The answer is simple: because it doesn't list its guest stars. Look at that label and imagine you saw it in a record store bin for $5... you'd probably pass on it. But now imagine that label read, Dazzie Dee featuring King Tee, Toddy Tee & Mix Master Spade! Yeah, now you'd pick it up, 'ey?

"Where You From?" is the only single off of Dazzie Dee's second album, The Re-Birth (which is worth checking out in its own right), both of which dropped in 1996 on Raging Bull Records. But, in fact, its origins are a little more complicated than that. It's actually a remix of "Westside Hoodstas" on Dazzie Dee's first album, Where's My Receipt?; and that song's definitely worth checking for, too.

"Westside Hoodstas" was released as the B-side to his single on Capitol Records, "Everybody Wants To Be a Gangsta," where it was titled "West Side Gangstas." It's a very smooth (as is a lot of Dazzie's stuff), laid back duet between Dazzie Dee and Mixmasta Spade. They trade verses back and forth over a track produced by Battlecat, with some sweet crooning by a couple uncredited girls on the hook. Spade does his unique brand of sing-song rhyming that a few others have tried to emulate, but only Spade could do like Spade:

"Now all you big-time rappers with those big-time names,
You done forgot about the man who introduced this game.
King Tee, Eazy-E, Cube and DJ Quik;
Before me Compton rap wasn't shit.
Now way, way back before the cash and the deals,
I used to sell mixtapes out my truck for meals.
I kept the girlies rockin' on my jock,
Spade rhymin' about the streets, gang bangin' in Watts.
I sold to the blues and I sold to the reds,
Kept the whole damn hood scene bobbin' their heads.
So don't front when you roll like you don't know me,
(Why?) I'm OG and from the CPT."

But like I said, this new 1996 version introduces "The Compton Carr" into the mix. The girls are out, replaced by new verses by King Tee and Toddy Tee; and the track - this time produced by Dazzie Dee himself - is a little less smooth and a little more upbeat and funkier. Spade must've come back to the studio, too, because even though they just re-use his verses from "West Side Hoodstas" (mashed into one double-length verse here), his voice is unmistakable, contributing to the new hook with the other MCs. Dazzie kicks an all new verse for his part, and of course both of the Tees' verses are all-new as well. This is barely a remix (it's labeled like a whole new song here on the 12", but on The Re-Birth, it's given the fuller title, "Where You From? (Westside Hoodsta Re-Mix)") and essentially a whole new, entirely different song that just recycles a bit of Mix Master Spade material.

The 12" comes with the Vocal Album Version, The Vocal Radio Clean Version and the Instrumental Version. So next time you see in a bin, remember not to pass this historical collaboration up.

Double Tee Bass

King Tee's earliest records came out on DJ Unknown's Techno Hop label. Then he signed to Capital, and the rest is history. Except, actually, there was a brief diversion. In between his first singles on Techno Hop and his major label debut, 1987, he released one 12" on a label called Mack Daddy Records. It was "Bass."

Of course, you know "Bass." "Bass" is a great, speaker-shaking song, with fresh cuts (provided by not one, but two DJs), fun rhymes killer horns and of course some really dope bass. It was on his debut album, Act a Fool; there was a video for it and everything. Every King Tee fan knows "Bass." But if you pay attention to the album's track0listing, the version that's on there, in the video, etc. is actually "Bass (Remix)." The Mack Daddy 12" has the original version.

The original "Bass" isn't too far removed from the remix, which is good, because the original is great. The signature horn riffs (though not the sax solo at the finish), big drums and bassline are all there. All of King Tee's four verses are there, and so are the funky-fresh scratch breaks by Keith Cooley and Pooh. The main difference, besides sounding a little less polished with some some stripped down percussion, is that the original record uses a bunch more classic records on the breaks and hooks, like "More Bounce To the Ounce." That might sound like overkill, because the remix already uses a fuckton of records! But it works; it never sounds overly busy; it's just great hip-hop. It also winds up with a final shout-and-call portion, Miami style, with Tee leading the audience, which for an upbeat anthem like this, is pretty appropriate.

Now, again, "Bass" was a hit, and Capitol did eventually put out their 12" single of it in 1988. This 12" features both the Remix and the original version, plus the remix instrumental, acapella, and another album track ("Ko Rock Stuff") and its instrumental. ..>The Mack Daddy 12" only has the Original version on both sides. So you really can't go wrong with the Capitol 12"; it's got all your "Bass" needs covered and then some. But there are some interesting things to note about the Mack Daddy 12".

First of all, they both come in picture covers; but they're completely different. My copy of the Mack Daddy 12" came in a plain sleeve, so thanks to Rare Dave for the original cover photo on the left, and that's a pic of my Capitol picture cover (hole punch - boo!) on the right:
It's also interesting to note that all the Capitol stuff only credits Pooh as a producer for "Bass," but the Mack Daddy version also credits DJ Bobcatt[sic.] as co-producer, and dedicates the song to the memory of the late DJ Easy Money. KDAY legend Greg Mack is listed as an executive producer, so I'm going to take an educated guess that Mack daddy Records was his project. So yeah, like I said, musically, everything on the Mack Daddy 12", plus a lot more, is on the Capitol one (though you need to get at least one of the 12"s if you've only go the LP), making the Mack Daddy 12" more of a collector's item than an essential. But when a song's as classic as this one is, sometimes a collector's item is worth having.

Thy Kingdom Conspicuously Absent

So, most of you probably remember the hype when Compton's largest veteran King Tee (who shortened his name to "King T" for the move) signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, originally appearing on Dre's '96 Aftermath compilation. That song - "Str-8 Gone," produced by Bud'da - was even released as a less publicized single. And you surely remember the anticipation of his fifth album, Thy Kingdom Come, which was meant to be produced chiefly by Dr. Dre and released in 1997... and then 1998 (hey, we all know Dre likes to work slow). And you probably remember that album eventually getting shelved and King T(ee) never again recording another album.

And some of the more serious fans among you probably remember the album eventually being released independently by a label called Greedy Green in the early 2000s with a ridiculous cover of a turkey wearing bling(??), which doesn't at all match the art direction Aftermath had been using. It first turned up on Sandbox, and then a few other places. Critical reception was not-so-hot... it had so many guest features (even Shaq was on there!), it felt more like a King Tee-sponsored compilation than a fifth King Tee album. And while there's no doubt that many, if not all, of those tracks were recorded for Tee's Aftermath album, I wonder if the "Turkey CD" is really the Kingdom Aftermath was planning to deliver. I suspect that all the tracks with guest MCs were chosen to get as much "celebrity cameo value" as possible by the label that was clearly just throwing this out there for the careless quick buck (it's not like they marketed the thing at all), and a more sophisiticated album, with a different track-listing, remains in Aftermath's legendarily deep vaults. Two Kingdom promotional 12" prereleases on Aftermath Records support my theory.

Exhibit A is the album's lead single, "Got It Locked." Flat out, the lead single from the album is not on the album. That lays out a pretty decent, circumstantial case just by itself... And just to hammer home the point, click the label scan to enlarge the print at the bottom which reads, "From the forthcoming Aftermath/Interscope release Thy Kingdom Come," or the sticker which reads, in decidedly bigger letters, "the first single from the forthcoming album Thy Kingdom Come." And if you still need convincing that this was meant to be on the album, and not just work as some kind of prelude, it's mentioned by name and quoted lyrically in The Source's September '98 review of Thy Kingdom Come. Again, the fact that this song has no guest MCs follows my theory. Interestingly, the 12" only features the Extended Mix (well, besides the Instrumental and Acapella)... a promo CDS on discogs, though, shows us that the album version was meant to be 4:02, so we know the Extended version has added 32 seconds of basically just letting the beat ride at the end. Nothing to write home about there. There's no production credits here, but again we can refer to discogs' CD single to see that it's produced by Dr. Dre himself. For a Dre beat, it's pretty underwhelming... Tee gives some basic "this is who I am; this is what I do"-type lyrics clearly meant to lay the groundworks for what was to come. It's nothing amazing - remember, nothing we've heard from any version of Thy Kingdom Come suggests it wouldn't've have been anything but his weakest effort - but it still seems crazy to leave off the album (a Dre beat in '98 was like a bucket of guaranteed money)... it is better than a lot of the stuff we did get.

So the fact that we're hearing the album without the lead single tells me we've been given a compromised product. But we still have Exhibit B: a four-track promotional EP of, as the sticker clearly states, "Selections from the forthcoming album Thy Kingdom Come" (and, yes, it's printed on the label again as well). Well, three of these selections did make it onto the "Turkey disc," but there's still a glaring ommission entitled "That's Drama." Opening (and closing) with a vocal sample from Fear of a Black Hat about Rappers Against Violence being pushed into violence, Tee comes with an angry diss track... although it's never quite clear just who he's talking about. From the lyrics, though, we know it's someone who lies about what he's done and the set he claims and stayed home doing something sexual while Tee was out squashing beef. Once again, it's a Tee solo track, but his hostility makes it one of his most compelling. And if there was ever any doubt that T was true to his roots (though, of course, there's never been), this track was produced by Chris "The Glove" Taylor.

So, like I said... there's really no way around this being Tee's weakest release; but it wasn't bad and quite possibly could've been better than the Greedy Green version we've heard. Only an excavation of Dre's vaults would tell us for sure. If nothing else, there's a couple 12"'s for completists to track down and get a little closer to the truth.

It also bears pointing out that another underground album from Tee surfaced in 2004 called The Ruthless Chronicles, which features a lot of songs (more than half) from Thy Kingdom Come. Could the "new" tracks actually just be the other unreleased tracks from Aftermath? It's definitely possible, but "Got It Locked" and "That's Drama" aren't included there either. So who knows?

And finally, yes, King Tee does have a myspace. And interestingly, his player is still filled with Thy Kingdom Come tracks.

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.