A Missing Piece from Several Puzzles

The internet is awesome for finding things. Things like great music that's been lost for a decade and a half. And that's what I've just found on the internet. Five pieces (plus five more snippets) of great, unreleased music that tragically sank on the same ship: Perspective Records.

Janet Jackson left Perspective Records, and the label was done. Despite having signed a killer line-up of hip-hop acts who all recorded complete, excellent albums, which to this day remain unreleased. And this promo tape, the '96 College Rap Sampler, features nothing but unreleased gems from that line-up, one complete song and one snippet per artist.

The first artist is probably the least interesting, only because his shelved album was at least released in a mediocre-quality dub that's spread well through the tape-trading and internet circles over the years. So let's start there. Young Zee. Most of you have heard it already, so I'll just briefly state that the full unreleased song on here is "Tonsil Check," featuring Yah Lovah... and I have to say, hearing it in proper quality has increased my appreciation of this slick sex rap. The snippet is one of my favorites from the album, "Electric Chair."

Next up are The Black Spooks. These guys made a name for themselves as Digital Underground affiliates (a good legacy there!), and a couple of them went solo after their album was swallowed up by Perspective. I have an underground 12" or two by these guys, but I have to say, the tracks here feature some solid production but also really display some ill lyricism I hadn't properly credited these guys for in the past. The song is "Mad Black Spooks" and the snippet is "Make Up Your Mind," neither of which seem to've been included on any of their subsequent post-Perspective releases. Until I heard these, I can't say I was too disappointed their album never dropped, but now I am.

Now we get to the really exciting stuff. How about some lost material from Pudgee's King of New York album? If you read my 'The Lost King of New York' post on the subject, you know I had found an old catalog title of a song called "Say Goodbye." When I asked Pudgee about it, he said he never released it. Well, I just found out it was a song intended for the Perspective album, 'cause here's a snippet of it on the sampler. The full length song is also mentioned briefly in that past blog entry, where I list some song titles mentioned in a King Of New York album review in The Source. The tape has no production credits unfortunately, but from a line in the intro, I gather this one was produced by The Beatminerz. It has a very similar feel to his single, "On the Regular."

Next is the highly under-rated artist The Almighty Arrogant. It doesn't help that his absolute weakest joint, "Lay Tight," was the only song Perspective ever put out by him. The tracks here are much better... he's like a west coast Young Zee, with a bugged out song called "Toxic Urb," which is about just that. The snippet is called "Arrogant Wayz (Remix)" and is pretty hot, too. Man, I just want to shake the Perspective tree and have all his material fall out already!

Finally comes Rufus Blaq. Now, if you're clever, you might point out that unlike the other four artists you've covered, Perspective did put Blaq's album out. And that's true, but for whatever reason, these two songs aren't on it. The full song is called "NRG" and the snippet is "Make It Last," and both show Blaq as a more rugged yet punch-liney MC than I remember him being. I like these tracks... I may have to go pick up his album which I never copped. If it's as good as these songs, I'll be happy.

It's great to have these songs, but it just makes me wish even harder that someone would give these albums their proper releases already. That way everybody can hear these tracks, and all the other ones still unheard; and the artists can finally get their due. So, I gotta thank the internet for a nice treat, but that's what really needs to happen. Sigh. ...If only hip-hop fans still bought music.

Young Zee, Arrogant, Pudgee & Mr. Blaq

(Youtube version is here.)

No Sleeping In Nick Wiz's Cellar

Nick Wiz has long been an underrated, east coast producer, but true to their name, No Sleep Records isn't sleeping on this man's talents. They've just a 42-song (not including two "Intro" skits), double CD set of rare and unreleased songs from the 90's, entitled Cellar Sounds volume one 1992-1998.

The nice thing here is the vast majority of these tracks fall under the "unreleased" rather than the "rare" category. The previously released joints are some Pudgee white label tracks, one of the Rakim remixes from his recent, limited The Cellar EP (also on No Sleep), three or four tracks from the very rare Lyricist Lounge/ Echo Underground Airplay tapes and (kind of an odd, not-so-rare choice) Main One's "Main Event" single. I'd say ten or under are previously released, which gives you about 35 completely unreleased gems on this compilation.

So, what's on this compilation? Unreleased joints by Nick Wiz's regulars like The Cella Dwellas (two tracks left off of their second album, plus an unreleased remix of "Good Dwellas") Shabaam Sahdeeq/Shadows In the Dark, Milkbone (yeah, I was a little surprised by that, too - apparently Wiz worked on his Milkcrate album), Ran Reed, Chino XL, and a whole bunch of production and remixes he did for other artists. There's a joint from Pudgee's unreleased King of New York album (not counting the white label stuff that's on here, too) and a remix of "On the Regular." There's a short but hot Chubb Rock track, an unused remix of Red Hot Lover Tone's "4 My Peeps" posse cut, another Rakim remix, a Channel Live track, a song that was left off of Darc Mind's LOUD/Anticon album and a surpriingly fresh Lady Luck track. There's also a bunch of demos and stuff he cut with several underground New Jersey artists (LSD, Mister Fit, Ill Mentatlity, Nautilus, Emskee and Tross). It's hard to pick a favorite when there's so many tracks to absorb here; but a pre-Flipmode joint by Lord Have Mercy is a clear stand-out for me.

The price is right ($13 for the double CD set), and it has some great liner notes. Nick Wiz writes a brief explanation/history for all 42 tracks! Example: "Shabaam Sahdeeq feat. Baybe - 'Sexy' - 1994 - While we were working on Shabaam's demo, Guru from Gang Starr brought Baybe down to the studio to work on her project. She jumped on the hook for this song, and actually she also sang the hook for The Cella Dwellas' single 'Perfect Match'." This is a must-have for those who've come to appreciate Nick Wiz's production and the artists he's worked with. You can order it direct from his or No Sleep's myspaces. Oh, and one of the nicest things about this release? The Volume One in the title implies a second volume in the future. :-D

Snagglepuss Week, Day 5

^Video blog!!
(More original content created for this blog, as opposed to linking some random Youtube vids created by somebody else.)

Tags: Snagglepuss, Red Bandit, Hurricane Holla Mackwell, Raggedy Man, Positive K, Grand Puba, Notorious B.I.G., Grand Daddy I.U., Pudgee the Phat Bastard

Snagglepuss Week, Day 1

^Video blog!!
(Original content created for this blog; not just linking something by somebody else.)

Tags: Snagglepuss, Pudgee

Think Big Even If You've Lost Biggy

When Pudgee was due to come out with his second album, King of New York, one of the singles was called "Think Big" and featured Notorious B.I.G. and Lord Tariq. It pretty much only got a limited, white label release (though it's since been repressed as a proper Perspective 12" and is easily found) because the label was folding just as this was coming out. And it probably only saw the light of day at all because it featured Biggy, who's of course a very big name.

It was a dope record and others have written a fair amount about it already (DWG wrote an excellent review of it here), but people generally overlook this second version of "Think Big" that was released three years later on DMD Records. They probably overlook it because Biggy's been removed from the track(!). I've no idea why... some kind of painful label politics must've been involved, I'm sure. But he's been replaced by Sadat X, and hey - he's no one to sneeze at either.

The original Minnesota-produced instrumental has been swapped, too (for sampling issues... explained in the DWG review linked above), and while this mix isn't quite as classic with it's infamous "Womp, Womp, A-Womp" bassline; this one, produced by The Co-Stars (whoever the heck they are), comes with a hard-hitting horn sample that's almost used like a drum track. Again, Sadat's verse is tight (Pudgee's and Tariq's are the same as on the original, and that's not a bad thing), talking about how, "My contract is wack, and my label's even wacker. So now I play the streets, and watch for drug sweeps." So, while this may not be the version everyone's after, it's definitely not a version to be slept on.

...Ok, there is one other drawback. The 12" only features the Radio Edit. This is especially distracting on Pudgee's verse, who's in nasty, hardcore mode and has a curse flipped practically every other word... it's almost like he's rhyming backwards! But the silver lining is that, since this is so over-looked, you can pick the 12" up dirt cheap... Amazon and EBay both even have multiple copies of the CD single (pictured; note the fancy picture cover) for a penny - new. ...Shit's definitely worth a penny, guys. 8)

The Lost King of New York

Once again, I'm making a blog post in conjunction with an all new artist's page I've been working on. There's a lot of white labels and unofficial releases, so now I've made a page dedicated to sorting it out and celebrating his hip-hop career in general... ladies and gentlemen, Pudgee tha Phat Bastard.

After releasing a very underrated LP and 12" single on Giant Records, the label folded and Pudgee was set to come out on Perspective Records. He released a couple of dope singles ("On the Regular," "Money Don't Make Your World Stop," and a white labeled collabo with Biggie Smalls and Lord Tariq entitled, "Think Big"), but then that label folded, too. Bloody bad luck for a talented MC and song-writer.

Looking at the liner notes for "On the Regular," we can see that his second album was originally going to be titled Niguz fa Life, and then looking at the notes for his next single, we can see that proposed title was dropped in favor of King of New York. With three official singles (well, two official, and one more or less), we already have a good taste of that sadly never released album... apparently promo copies do exist, though; because it was reviewed. ...Yes, this also means a few people, at least, have copies! Collectors, tape traders, hip-hop bloggers... your mission is now laid before you. ;)

Anyway, a bunch of white label 12"s followed over the years, and it's unclear A) how much Pudgee had to do with their release and B) whether these are tracks originally intended for King of New York or if they were recorded later. The review I have mentions a few song titles by name: specifically including "Whatever," "For My Daughter," "Hustler's Anthem" and "Tha Hold Up" and neglects to mention any of the big-name guest stars featured on the white labels (including Digable Planets, DMX... look, just go to my new Pudgee page for the full & proper list), so presumably they were recorded later*. We can be sure, at least, that "Angel Dust" was recorded afterward, as it's a tribute to 2Pac, who was shot in September of 2006, and The Source had already reviewed KoNY in May of '06). So, I'm guessing most - probably all - of the white label releases are post-Perspective recordings.

So, that brings me to this particular one. I'm sticking with my notion of writing about records that there's next to no info online about... no blog posts, not on discogs.com, etc. So here we have "Get Over" b/w "Money & Hoes" a white label release from 2000. as you can see from the scan, there's basically no information on the label, so I've no idea who produced either cut.

Despite it's R&Bish nature (relationship rap, girl singing the chorus, the whole nine... die hard Give 'Em the Finger fans might be disappointed, but I won't begrudge the man a little maturity), the A-side wins on this one. His delivery is still quick and tight, the lyrics are smart and engaging:

"I never considered the fact
I was breaking your heart.
Maybe when it happened,
I was high, I won't lie;
But you know I wanted to die
When you started to cry.
But you see,
I had to stop it before it got any deeper.
...
Said you never wanted to see me again;
And even then,
Ten minutes later you was New Edition
Singin' 'Is this the end?
Can we begin again?'
All you wanted was a chance,
Even if we was friends.
And I'm steady tryin' to think
How I'ma make this right;
Tryin' to make it less lonely,
On those endless nights."

The B-side, "Money & Hoes" is a little blander. It's another take on the subject matter of "Money Don't Make Your World Stop," ("Money don't make you; you make it," he says again) but not as good in any respect. It's not bad, mind you - with a downbeat bassline and slow, scratched-in drum track; and I don't think he's ever released a rap that won't make you listen closer to what he's saying - but it's not up to his usual standard; and the chorus is especially limp. It's the kind of song you'll listen to when you first get it, think, "eh, ok," and then file away in your collection and forget about forever.

Now, before I leave you, I've got one more Pudgee/ white label thing to talk to you guys about. An online catalog that seems to be very accurate (checking against their other detailed white label info they provide that I'm personally sure about), lists two other Pudgee white labels I've never seen or otherwise heard of. Specifically:

1) Pudgee "Say Goodbye" b/w "Can't Get Over You" (catalog #TS0009) 1998

2) Pudgee ft. Pretty Boy "Tell Me You Don't Care" (catalog # TS0013) 1999

I'm not sure if these were ever actually put out, and are just now super rare, or if they were intended for release but it never happened. I did ask Pudgee about them... at the time, I wasn't even sure if they were by him or possibly another artist with the same/similar name, like DJ Pudgee P, though the catalog numbers match up with some of his previous white labels. He apparently hadn't heard about these releases until I mentioned them to him, and answered, "Those are my records but i never released them...WEIRD!" So, I don't know if they in fact exist; but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out. And if anyone reading this has them or knows of any avenues one could run these releases down, I (and Pudgee) would really appreciate it. :)

So, where is he now? He does have a myspace page, and he was recently featured on an mp3-only (BOO!! Press it up, guys... at least on CDR) album by Grand Daddy IU called Long Island's Finest. Apparently he's working on a new album for a new label, called Seven and Seven Entertainment. They have a myspace page, too, but at the moment it's still sealed off as "Private" while it's under construction.


*Update 8/11/7: I just dug up the old Rap Pages review of this album (which gave it an 8 out of 10, by the way, and called it, "a solid, original work that's never afraid to go where less royal MCs fear to tread"). They also don't mention any of the white label song titles or guest stars, and do mention the following song titles: "King of New York," "Talk Behind Your Back," "Whatever," "Make Em Die," "Things Ain't Changed," "Hustler's Anthem," "For My Daughter" and "Money Don't Make Your World Stop."