Saukrates Says Freeze

(Unreleased, unheard Saukrates music from the late 90s, courtesy of a(n admittedly unwitting) rap publication legend!  Check out The Underground Vault here.  And Dig Mag here.  Youtube version is here.)

Underground Tapes Shouldn't Be This Complicated

In 1999, Saukrates was crossing the line from underground to a major label artist.  He'd been putting nice little indie 12"s in Canada since '94, started blowing up in America in '96/ '97, and by 2000 he was a part of Universal's corporate empire.  And to bridge that gap, in 1999, he put out an album called The Underground Tapes, which was essentially a compilation of the rare, indie joints that blew him up made accessible for the new fans who were now discovering him, mixed in with some new and unreleased stuff.  And then, for unfathomable reasons, he released it over and over again that same year with slightly different track-listings that I don't think Saukrates himself could even sort out anymore.

I mean, okay, I shouldn't exaggerate.  First(?) there was The Underground Tapes: Limited Edition Vinyl, Vol. 1 EP on Serious Entertainment.  As you'd expect, this was sort of a sampler/ lead single for the album, featuring some of the hottest songs with Instrumentals and a radio edit that weren't on the proper album.  That makes sense.  So you've got that, with 6 songs over 8 tracks, then the album, which Serious put out on CD, with a full 13 songs.  But, since Saukrates was kind of straddling the US/ Canadian line, he also put out a Canadian version of the album on a label over there called Capitol Hill (no connection - I don't think - to the major Capitol Records).  That CD has more songs: 19 including the hidden bonus track.

So, okay, I guess it's not really that complicated.  But oh, wait.  Capitol Hill then re-released that album in 2000, with 18 songs, several of which are different than the other one.  Exclusive songs like "Night Nurse" and "Maybe I Should Change."  Oh, and there's also a cassette release of the 2000 reissue with just 17 of the songs, because the last one was a CD-only bonus track.  Plus Vol. 2 of the vinyl EPs did come from Serious, with seven more songs including a couple remixes that only appear on that vinyl EP.  And if that's still not enough, someone discovered and uploaded to discogs an unreleased CDR master version of the album with yet another alternate track-listing, including "Night Nurse" and also a song that's never been released on any of the previous versions or anywhere else called "Let Me Roll."  And if you want to get really definitive, I've also seen a Capitol Hill sampler cassette of The Underground Tapes out there, with five songs on it.

Whew!  That's exhausting, right?  Well guess what, gang?  I'm here to contribute to the madness, because I was going through my stash and realized I happen to own still yet another version!  It's a Serious promo cassette that features another exclusive track not on any of the other versions, and which has also never been released anywhere else.  For the most part, it has the exact same track-listing as Serious's CD.  It's technically one short, but only because it skips the "Intro," which is a snippet of a radio interview with DJ X.  But all the actual songs are there, and in the same sequence.  However, there's then one last song, "Money Or Love (Remix)."

You may remember that "Money Or Love" was included on every version of The Underground Tapes, even the vinyl EP.  And it was made the single for the album, being put out as its own 12" by Capitol Hill, and they made a music video for it.  That 12" features additional versions of the song, like the Instrumental and Accapella, but not this remix.

Now, I'll be real with you guys.  "Money Or Love" was not a favorite off this album.  It emphasized more of his sung chorus and trendier production style.  He still sounds like himself as an MC here and he's never really fallen off when it comes to his bars, even in recent years.  So it's an okay song, but the topic is pretty crass and the music feels more like record executive bait than his tight "underground" material that got him to this point.  Like this is the beginning of the crossover stuff that turned each Saukrates record from something you just had to have to alright stuff you didn't really need to keep checking for.

But this remix is easily much better.  Why is it the doper versions always seem to be the ones relegated to the B-sides or left in the vaults?  Lyrically, it's the same, but the original instrumental was pretty limp.  It had an alright basic loop, which is still on hand for this remix, at its core.  Like, it's a reasonably catchy, twangy guitar sample (they mime playing it live in the video, but I'm pretty sure it's a sample) and drums with sparse bass notes.  It's funky enough to album filler that keeps your head nodding, but it should never have been a single.  But this remix drops a huge, chunky sample on top of the whole thing, which makes the song a lot heavier.  They fade the guitar out for a lot of it, and honestly they could've completely gotten rid of it for the whole song, because it's totally stomped out anyway.  The only drawback is they still keep the original hook.  And it's not like his singing sucks or anything, but it doesn't mesh with this remix instrumental, which would sound better with a much simpler, stripped-down hook.  Or even no hook at all and just pause as the beat continues.

So there's still room for more improvement.  Maybe this was left off because whoever produced it (this tape has no credits) also felt it wasn't quite finished.  But however you cut it, the remix is by far the stronger version of the song.  And it's only available on this... ninth? version of The Underground Tapes.  Wow.  Think there are any more out in the world to be found?  Can anyone dig us up an even tenth?

Still An Essential Monch Innovation

You're just going to have to take my word for this, millennials, but there was a time, back in the day, when a guest verse by Pharoahe Monch was a really surprising and exciting thing. This was before he was doing guest spots all the time and before he'd even released any solo records, let alone started experimenting with styles and spreading himself thin. The Rawkus thing hadn't even started yet. Organized Konfusion had just broken up and everybody was wondering how we were going to hear from those guys again. "Metal Thangz" had dropped, but that was about it. This became, in a weird way, a sort of sequel to FT's "Metal Thangz."

So in 1998, it was pretty exciting when 2 Rude released his "Innovations" 12" featuring Monch and rising indie star Saukrates. I mean, nobody even knew who on Earth 2 Rude was, but it didn't matter. New Monch record! Monch and Sauk may've been the guests on a 2 Rude record, but in the hearts and minds of everyone who ordered this record based on low-fi RealAudio sound clips online, 2 Rude and Sauk were guests on Monch's new record.

And it was an extra bonus when 2 Rude turned out to not even be a rapper but the producer, because that meant the little opening verse from Monch in the clip wasn't going to be his sole contribution. he track's a nice 'pass the mic back and forth' lyrical trade-off between Monch and Saukrates. And 2 Rude's track was pretty nice. He wound up recording a whole album and like five more singles - I think he won a Juno? - but I don't know how many heads followed him. We were following Monch, and the next stop for us was "WWIII" on Soundbombing 2.

So yeah, this was one of the top indie 12"s to have in 1998 even though nobody knew the artist. And revisiting it almost twenty years later, it still holds up. Even without its initial buzz, it still packs a lot of energy. It's got a cool, subtle instrumental, simply alternating light little guitar strum loops; but it's a great counterbalance to Saukrates dense backpacker rhymes and particularly Monch's hectic staccato flow. And those two energies are gently fused into one cohesive song on the hook, which is surprisingly but effectively sung by Saukrates himself. It sounds dope.

The only weakness is that it's a bit of a word salad. You know, it's just a freestyle song, and that's pretty much what we fans would've asked for if asked, but it does feel a bit like we're listening to nothing: "May God bless my very last breath to be Allahu Akbar, for narcotic cops to mark me inside of The Shark Bar. Spiritual sparks and lyrical darts adapt the visual. One nation under this rap shit indivisible." Um, what? It's like both MCs are constantly bouncing onto new thoughts before finishing their old ones. Like I know what all of the little pieces mean - I've even heard of The Shark Bar - but I don't see how they form any cohesive thoughts. But the whole song is like that, interspersed with very 90s punchlines like, "I get ya at your Bar Mitzvah leavin' you mentally circumcised," "this expert who could keep niggas alert in a school for narcolepsy" and "even Ellen and Martina Navratilova's comin' over 'cause they're trying to get with it."

So its best if you take it with a pinch of "it was the 90s" salt, but they still sound great by today's standards. And it's just the one song, but it comes complete in Club (uncensored), Radio (censored), Instrumental and Accapella mixes. 2 Rude did include this on his follow-up album, Rudimental 2K; but it didn't have many other MCs as dynamic as these two. Plus, I don't think there was a vinyl version. So really, this 12" is all you need. But even in 2016, I gotta say it still deserves a spot in anyone's crates.

When Common Cheated On Just-Ro With Saukrates

In 1996, Common was in his prime. His last album out had been Resurrection, after his early "wacky" Can I Borrow A Dollar flow material and well before he started turning off fans with his Electric Circus "it's me and my R&B singer girlfriend against the world" stuff. 1996 was the year he leaked his "Bitch In Yoo" diss track to Ice Cube on white label vinyl. You couldn't get more credible and respected than Common at that point, so it was a big deal when he did a guest appearance on a pretty obscure 12" by an indie Chicago MC named Just Ro. And it felt like an even bigger deal when he rapped the same verse he kicked on that record on Saukrates' record a little later in the year.

Now, granted, this isn't the first time a rap verse had been recycled by an MC. You can trace it back to the very oldest rap records, like when Melle Mel repeated his greatest verse from "Super Rappin'" on "The Message." Busy Bee almost made an annual tradition out of telling us the story of how he won the lottery with his fly limousine "and the space antenna on the back of the car." And very shortly after the Common incident, you started to see a lot of credible MCs do the same thing, like Kool G Rap and Krs One. And obviously (and sadly) there have been a ton of MCs taking guests verses by deceased artists and including it on their own projects, like Chino XL re-purposing Big Pun, Trapp jacking Biggie and Tupac or Royce da 5'9 using them all. And all those crazy fake 2Pac albums with a million and one producers trying reusing the same handful of acapellas over and over.

But when this happened, it was pretty rare. It was at the time when miixtape freestyles started outshining everything else on mixtapes including the mixes; and you started having freestyle compilations like the Wake Up Show's and Tony Touch's "50 MCs." And you invariably heard those freestyle verses turn up on the artists albums a couple months later. So I guest reusing those same freestyle verses on song cameos was just the next step. But it was surprising when it happened; it felt like we'd sorta caught someone in the act of getting away with something they shouldn't. In the past, the rare rap songs with repeated vocals tended to be intentional references or semi-sequels to past songs. Sure "Tanji" and "Tanji II" repeated lyrics. But this kinda felt like: hey! He can't do that! And frankly, even now that those doors have been long open, it's still pretty dodgy.

So "Souldiers" b/w "Confusion" was Just Ro's debut, so nobody outside of Chicago had heard of this guy before this record. We all bought it really for Common's verse. He put out a longer cassette and CD release at the same time or shortly after, too, called Make It Happen (where he changed the spelling to the more conventional "Soldiers"), which featured the songs from the 12" plus a couple others. But it didn't really get out there like the single, because again, it was really moving on the strength of Common's contribution. It helped that 1996 was before Common and most 90s MCs, really started flooding the market with guest spots on smaller rappers' indie label singles. Fans would still be excited at the prospect of "ooh, another Common song!" at that point.

Fortunately, it turned out Just-Ro was pretty good, and he made a solid beat, too. Even the song without Common on it was worthwhile. I'm so used to getting burned by mediocre to worse MCs when I pick up a 12" for a guest spot. Still, there's no question who out-shone who on the 12", and I can see why audiences continued to Common rather than Just down the line, though the fact that it took Just Ro four years to put out any kind of follow-up surely didn't help his career.

Meanwhile, Canadain rapper/ producer Saukrates (pronounced like Socrates, get it?) was having a surprisingly successful come-up. He'd just dropped his split 12" with Choclair where his song "Father Time" got a lot of buzz. And at the end of '96* he dropped what is still probably to this day his signature release, the Brick House EP. It included "Father Time," again, along with a new remix, and new songs with big and highly respected American MCs: Masta Ace, OC and Common. But the song with Common, "Play Dis" featured a surprisingly familiar verse:

"Stimulated by a tree of drama,
I advance on a branch of respect and honor.
A patient of the Ill state
Centered in trauma. Never been one to side with homi-.
For Armageddon, I'm gettin' armed plus armor.
The karma of a martyr on the rise like the temp
In this Southside sauna.
The preface to the book of life states to pack human.
To it I react by staying strapped with the mac of courage.
Parallel to a carrousel of murders,
I prefer to make a life than take a life.
Stopped at the street called Wise and made a right.
Sort of how I play my broads is how I play the mic:
First I cuff it, then finger fuck it.
Check it, spit something rugged, other niggas be reluctant
To touch it after me.
Passively they strike, never matchin' me.
Rapidly though placidly,
I fabric the verbal tapestry;
Tap the keg of you conscious;
Navigate niggas like Farrakhan with a compass."

One thing that's interesting is that the two songs have pretty different tones, and yet the verse feels at home on both. You can also tell, from Common doing adlibs or mentioning Sauk's name on the song, that he actually went into the studio and recorded specifically for both songs. No one just took a finished acapella and ran with it.

And Just wasn't totally short-changed; Common actually laced him with two verses on "Confused," so only one turned up on Sauk's record.  Unfortunately, it was kind of the most impressive and memorable verse, not just on that son but from Common in a while...although to be fair, part of the reason it's so memorable is probably that we heard it on two consecutive songs. That's a bit of an unfair advantage. But, still, did Just know Common was going to lease the same material out a second time? For that matter, did Sauk know the material he was getting was used goods? If not, no matter how much some of us might hand-wave the practice, they must've felt ripped. I felt ripped, and I was just a fan.

Both "Confusion" and "Play Dis" feature additional - and unique - Common verses, though. So if you bought both records solely for Common, at least you'll be getting some new material of his on both records. In fact, Brick House also has a "Play Dis" remix which not only features a catchier instrumental, but even another, more playful bonus verse from Common. So it's by far the definitive version, to the point where Sauk really could've left off the original entirely.

At the end of the day, I tend to favor Just Ro's "Confusion." but the Brick House is really nice all around. Just Ro comes off more as the street dude with realer things to say and rawer tracks. Sauk has a more polished and fun feel, and he served up a great EP. So despite Common having been the biggest draw on both records, and despite him repeating the same material on both, both records are really worth having in your crates. And, hey, if you have to hear a verse twice as often, this is a good pretty good one.


*There's no date on the label. Discogs puts it at '07 and diskunion listed it with a release date of 1/1/7, but I kinda remember it dribbling out a little before that.  So I say '96, and either way, it was certainly right around that time.