Screwball Week, P.S.: The Return of Rockwell Noel

(Youtube version is here.)

Screwball Week, Day 7: KL's Last Record

So, I really don't know how or precisely when Kamakaze stopped being KL and Kyron and became just KL, but at some point it did. It was always the two guys until it became just the one guy. And perhaps that change is largely responsible for this record's under-performance... people were like, "Kamakaze with no Kyron? On a new label with new producers? No thanks!" That's why you see this record on sale everywhere, $.99, $.69... But, hey, I'll take a KL solo record. Don't throw those out, give them to me!

This is "It's All Good" on Traffic Entertainment. It dropped in 2004, the same year as the Screwed Up compilation and Hostyle's solo record. It's the last year anything came out from Screwball as a group. Poet had already started coming out on Premier's label... Screwball may've already been tough for the guys at Hydra to wrangle together, but this is when they really just went off and did their own things.

So, you've got two tracks, with the full break-down: Dirty, Clean, Instrumental and Acapella. Both tracks are produced by E. Blaze, who may not be a name you recognize, but he produced "Underworld Operations" for Lord Finesse, "Fire Water" for Fat Joe, and just recently a track for Show and Krs One's new project; so he's actually a safe bet. It's a little smoother than your average Screwball track, but it thumps and has some hard samples. And similarly, while KL's flow is a little more relaxed, his scratchy voice still has that distinctive Screwball edge.

And speaking of that Screwball edge, the crew may've split, but it's still held down here. You've got the signature "Hu-haaa!" in both songs, and a guest appearance by Blaq Poet himself on the second one.

"Right Here" is the B-side, and the hook defiantly assures us, "Screwball, we ain't goin' nowhere; we're right here!" It's still a bit smoother than Screwball fans would expect maybe, but it's a lot closer to the traditional formula. The exploitation strings sound just like something Don would've hooked up for 'em two years earlier. The echoey, bongo-style percussion is a new element that E is bringing to the table, but it's funky, so it's impossible to complain. And just to seal the deal, there's some Premier-style scratches at the end, shouting out Queensbridge.

To boil it down to a real simple assessment, the A-side is good and the B-side is great. I guess I can see why people might've been reluctant to mess with this, since it seems like a new, less desirable direction for Screwball. And honestly, an entire album of KL somewhat smoothed out does sound disappointing - I didn't pick this one up right away myself for that reason. I waited until it became one of those records I saw everywhere I turned, super cheap. But if you forget about what it was supposedly foretelling (there never was an album follow-up to this single, anyway, so it's a moot point), and just take this record on its own merits - it's good shit! And the fact that even cheaper and easier to add to your collection than when it was new is just a bonus. Usually it works the other way: you hold off on buying a record because you're not sure about it, and then years later you realize how dope it was, and what an essential piece it is for your collection, and the only way to get it is to pay exorbitant prices on EBay. But for once, cynicism at least pays off a little bit.

And of course, now knowing that it's KL's last record... though not his last appearance. A graf crew he was down with at the time, The Grim Team (that's a Grim Team shirt he's wearing on the picture cover, above), featured him on their album in 2007. But knowing how that it's the last record in his sadly limited body of work, makes it all the more essential.

R.I.P. Kenneth Lewis, KL, a.k.a. Legacy.

Screwball Week, Day 6: H-O-S-T-Y-L-E

"We on the same page, same stage - same shine.
Feelings I've been holdin' back from speakin' my mind:
I helped feed ya kids, woulda bust my nine,
Protected ya life, woulda sacrificed mine.
Held you down on stage when you fucked up ya rhymes,
'Cause you was too bent up to remember your lines.
But you really hurt our hearts the most, 'cause you was close,
Stabbed us in the back over bullshit contracts.
Befriend me, befriend us, now you're disliked;
Caught up in your own hype, feelin' your own snake bite."

Most heads were understandably caught up in the drama of guest star Cormega taking on his former crew, The Firm, on the title cut to Screwball's second album, Loyalty. But within Screwball's camp, a much bigger controversy was brewing in that song, with KL directing his verse to fellow member Hostyle.

That;s right, he was expressing his feelings about the crew slowly splitting apart after the stint at Tommy Boy, where that label expressed interest in working with Hostyle if he'd split from the crew. They'd already pressured the crew into using his solo joint, "H-O-S-T-Y-L-E" for the lead single to their album, but that was just the beginning. Hydra Records founder Jerry Famolari explains the situation in his Unkut interview, "[Hostyle] went and did some management deal with some girl, and KL and the group and I went crazy, and that’s where that song came about." So if Loyalty sounds a bit disjointed compared to Y2K, that's because the group was already breaking apart. Famolari explains, "I was kind of holding it together. A lot of that stuff was flown-in as well. A lot of verses were flown-in, and I convinced the guys to come in and do certain things, but it was tough. That album was like pulling teeth."

And explanation pretty much goes for Hostyle's solo album, One-Eyed Maniac, too. "It was certain old songs and a lot of stuff I flew in. I created 75 percent of that. Same thing with the Screwed Up. There was a lot of songs that would not have ever come out. I just took pieces from different things and cuts, whatever I could do to make the album as strong as possible. We had so much money already invested and so much stuff sitting there, I’m like, 'Before I sit on it and have to put out a song here, a song there, a song here, a song there, I might as well just get rid of it.' There was no marketing behind it because there was no group. I don’t even know where Hostyle is. I haven’t spoken to Hostyle in a good eight months." So when you see a record like today's record, we may know when it was released; but we really can't say for sure when it was recorded or for what project.

In this case, Hostyle's "Live From New York" was released on Hydra Records in 2000. It may've been recorded for his Tommy Boy project, or just something he recorded later for Hydra. Who knows? But in any case, it's a cool, obscure little record.

The beat's produced by A Kid Called Roots, and it features one of those "randomly banging on a piano" style loops like Premier used on "D. Original." But that's one of those styles where you've really gotta get it just right, and A Kid Called Roots doesn't quite get it to Premier-level perfection. But it's nice and hardcore, and it sounds pretty good.

More essential to the song than the instrumental is the duo of Hostyle and his guest, Quik. No, thankfully, that's not DJ Quik from Compton - not that I dislike DJ Quik, but those kinds of East/ West collaborations never wind up working out, so I'd just as soon never see him appear on a Screwball record. No, this is actually the debut of Joell Ortiz ...as in Slaughterhouse. After this record, he changed his name to Jo-Ell Quikman for his first single on Rawkus, and then it eventually became just Joel Ortiz. And the pair of 'em just keep passing the mic back and forth kicking freestyle rhymes. It's just one of those rugged joints with zero radio potential that only a serious head can appreciate.

And if this record isn't random enough, instead of having another Hostyle track on the B-side, it was a Godfather Don joint, featuring Prince Po and RA the Rugged Man. Also produced by Don, it's one of those tracks that make you wonder what the Hell he sampled. It also shows that maybe RA should hire Don as a regular producer, because he better here than he usually does. Po comes slick, too; but it's Don himself who comes the tightest. You might have Ill Funk Freaker and The Nineties Selections, but your Godfather Don collection isn't complete if you don't have this one.

And what of Hostyle today? Last I read, he'd changed his name to Ken Kade and had an album in the works called Under the Influence, and he also has some music online where he's partnered with a guy named Rap P. And as for his part of the group? The beef is supposedly squashed, but he's obviously still not part of Screwball today. In an interview this time last year, Poet simply said, "Hostyle, I don’t know what’s going on with him. He’s going through a couple of personal issues. He’s out there and he’s still doing his thing, but I’m not really in touch with him right now." Of course, even back in "Loyalty," KL said, "I don't plan on dissin' you in interviews," so I'm not sure if anything's really progressed since then. But I certainly hope so. Though of course it's nobody's fault, it's already a tragedy we have to accept a Screwball without KL; so I know there's not a Screwball fan in the world who doesn't hope the rest of the guys can pull it together. It just ain't the same without Hostyle.

Screwball Week, Day 5: Who Shot Rudy?

Screwball's second record, again on a pre-Hydra white label, this is their most famous song; and interestingly, it's a solo song. I mean, some of the other members might be adding their voices to the chorus, but the rap verses are all Kyron. He wrote the song while he was in jail, and the controversy it generated nearly bought him back. A DVD I reviewed last year, Legends Of the Hip Hop Cop, talk about how the police targeted him after the song came out. Of course, it was his own damn fault that he already had an open warrant; but according to the documentary, they specifically went out to arrest him and the police even went so far as to go into the label and take all of their songs.

Just in case you didn't already know, the "Rudy" of the song's title is the then mayor of New York City, Rudy Guilliani. He had a very controversial term, because he took a very strong-arm approach to cleaning up the city. He was largely successful, in that he made a lot of notoriously crime-ridden areas safe and tourist-friendly, and had most of the porn, etc removed from Times Square. But he accomplished this by using very brash and ethically questionable methods that seemed to persecute many of the city's poor. The nation got much more unified behind him after 9/11, but at the time of this record - 1999 - he was definitely one of those, you loved him or you hated him-type political figures.

And this song lets you know what Screwball's attitude is towards the man right out the gate with the opening vocal sample of Esther Rolle's "If You See a Devil Smash Him" from Don't Play Us Cheap. Then the strings kick in, and it's another perfect Screwball track by Mike Heron. Screwball worked with a bunch of producers - and some quite regularly, like Godfather Don, who was another great match. but Heron was so plugged into Screwball's sound that he should probably be considered Screwball's fifth member.

According to Blaq Poet, Tommy Boy's nervousness about this song was also responsible for delaying the album, Y2K... in fact, he says in his interview with Unkut, Guilliani had ties to Time Warner (who actually owns Tommy Boy), "Yeah, they held-up the album. Coulda dropped that shit and went platinum if they woulda dropped it at the right time, when we had all that free publicity off the 'Who Shot Rudy?' shit. We was all on the news, in the newspapers and all of that, but they don’t roll with it ’cause they were scared of Time-Warner, and Rudy Guilliani at the time had ties with Time-Warner, who were the distributor for Tommy Boy, so they slowed down with dropping that." On the other hand, the big buzz off this tiny, independent release, may've been instrumental in getting Tommy Boy to mess with Screwball in the first place.

According to the infamous article in The New York Daily News, Kyron came up with the song in a dream: "The taxi drivers were protesting, the frank vendors were protesting, and I just vibed off that... some things are for the better [in the city under Giuliani] but there's a lot of people who are being wrongly picked up and arrested." And there is a somewhat dreamlike quality in how the story is narrated - rather than coming off an angry incitement to violence or the bitter tale of a victim, it's told by a nearly impartial third party:

"Ay-yo, who shot Rudy in broad daylight for cash?
I woke up this morning and heard the newsflash:
They said it happened down at City Hall;
He had his wife with him. Five shots from the crowd made him fall.
It was chaos and pandemonium, blood covered up the podium,
Covered his face, and wouldn't show me him.
I had to see if it was true;
Secret service was mad nervous. So was the boys in blue."

The way he drifts from being at home, watching the events on news, to right there on the scene asking to see the mayor's face on the scene is certainly straight out of a dream. But the incident really just serves as a set-up for the meat of the song: the details of the shooting's aftermath and, of course the final statement that there's an awful lot of potential suspects due to the way the mayor ran the city:

"Sharp lawyer suit-breasted, double-breasted; reporters
Was mobbin' daughters and other mourners,
Pushin' cameras away, blockin' the sights.
Had the riot squad at Washington Heights.
Kennedy Airport stoppin' flights. Niggas was tight,
'Cause they couldn't sell a dime all night; but that was ahright.
The devil died and nobody cried,
They was real like some Jews celebratin' when the pharaoh got killed.
Glasses of Henny were spilled and we got twisted,
Smokin' blunts on the corner like we used to 'cause we missed it.
Knowin' he was gone for good, dead and stinkin', it got me thinkin',
Ay-yo, where the fuck Dinkins?
And Harlem World, Shaolin to Brownsville,
Did Sharpton and Farrakhan make the shit real?
Was it Khalel? You know he keep mad steel.
Did the Bloods or the Crips smoke Rudy on the hill?
Who shot Rudy?"

The B-side... Or rather, the A-side, if you look at the actual record label, is another Screwball hit that's sure to be familiar, "You Love To Hear the Stories." Here they pay tribute to the original ode to Queensbridge, "The Bridge" by MC Shan, and it even features him reprising one of his classic verses from that record. But this isn't the version most heads know from the Y2K album. This is the rare, original version, produced by the aforementioned Godfather Don. I don't know if I can say this is better than Pete Rock, because that's damn good. It's more lush and musical - basically just what you'd expect Pete Rock to bring to the table but this version is harder and a more natural fit into Screwball's catalog. Certainly, it's a good enough song, and the production styles are hot and different enough, that a serious Screwball fan will want to have both.

This is a little bit rarer than most Screwball singles, since Tommy Boy opted not to press a version of this as one of their own singles, which Screwball probably initially expected them to. So you've just got however many copies Screwball pressed up themselves promotionally. Still, none of Screwball's records are really that hard to find, and there's a couple of relatively inexpensive copies sitting on discogs as of this writing. Dirty, Clean and Instrumental versions are provided for both tracks.

Screwball Week, Day 4.5: Screw Nuts

So, here it is, Screwball's underground debut single: 1996's "Screwed Up" on Screwball and Hydra Records. The debut of their trademark screwball logo, and their signature "Hu-haaa!" call. The four members artists finally united as a group.

And they come with some surprisingly big-shot guest producers for their first release, The Beatnuts. The 'Nuts come with a sound not too far removed from their usual production style, but it also manages to anticipate Screwball's hardcore sound that would be provided by their future regular producers. Maybe part of that, though, is just that Screwball bring their signature, hardcore flows to the track and make what would've sounded different in another MC's hands unmistakably their own.

You've got a funky little guitar riff sample, which on its own is quite soft. But married with a single deep bass note, hard drums and these strange, atmospheric wailings, it becomes pure, rugged hip-hop. As great as the material Marley's fam was coming with on Warner Bros., this record made it clear that Screwball was the real street shit, but with no loss in musical richness. Everything that makes Screwball Screwball is right here.

"Screwed Up" eventually turned up on Screwball's compilation album of the same title. But the B-side, "They Wanna Know Why," has never been released anywhere else but here.

This one's produced by Screwball regular Mike Heron, who's a pro at complimenting their style. This track's a little unusual for them, though, with a slower, smoother vibe. It's dark and still hard, especially with Screwball's angry flows on top of it - they almost sound like Onyx at times on this. But it's a real cool, head-nodder at the same time, and you don't find a lot of that in Screwball's catalog. There's also a fuckton of nice scratching by an uncredited DJ (unless it's Heron himself?), just to take the song up one final notch. All elements together, this is a monster of a track - a brooding dragon in a cave that you don't want to piss off.

This 12" is a little rarer than most of theirs, but not much, and it's damn sure worth it. Dirty, Clean and Instrumental versions are provided for both tracks. Apparently some were sold in sticker covers and some in plain covers. Unfortunately, mine was one of the later - d'oh! - so if you're after this, make sure to get one with a sticker.

Screwball Week, Day 4: The Origin Story

So, yesterday we looked at the the roots of Screwball's origins, the earliest releases by any of its members, specifically Poet. But there's an eight year gap between those records and the debut of Screwball itself. What happened during all that time? After all, the exact make-up of Screwball can be a bit confusing for more casual fan... I remember back in the days, myself, wondering, "wait, are KL and Kyron the same guy, or is that Solo? Which one's Kamakaze, and didn't someone leave the group?" And I'd feel pretty remiss in my Screwball Week duties if I still left anybody with an unclear idea of just who they are or how the group came about. I was going to just jump into a look at one of their 12" singles today; but instead I figure I'd better do something a little more explicitly biographical first.

So, after those singles with Noel Rockwell, Poet hooked up with a new DJ and producer, Hot Day, and formed PHD (Poet and Hot Day). Hot Day was already down with Marley Marl and The Super Kids, putting out records on Tuff City; so when PHD formed, that was their natural home. Their big album was Without Warning in 1991, but they actually kept putting out records on Tuff City all the way up until 1996.

It's some of these later PHD records that really tie it all together... 1995's "Set It Off Part 3" is a posse cut featuring Havoc (yes, of Mobb Deep - pretty much right before "Shook Ones" blew up), Hostyle and Legacy of Kamikaze[sic]. This was the debut of Hostyle, who would go to be a core member of Screwball. And Legacy also became a core member after changing his name to what he's better known as now, KL. In 1996, PHD put out their final single, which featured another collaboration with both Hostyle and Legacy, "The Grand P.O." It's also worth noting that, by this time in their career, Marley Marl had taken production duties over on PHD's records. And its these singles that transitioned directly to the debut single of Screwball later that year.

But what about the fourth member? Okay, we have to back up a bit. You notice Legacy was credited as being "of Kamikaze." So who were Kamakaze? They were a two man team that Marley was working with, consisting of KL and Solo. Kamakaze was going to come out with an album called Head On on Warner Brothers, along with other acts Marley was working with at the time. But this is right at the time all of that ended - Warner Bros shut down Cold Chillin' in '96, and Marley's acts who were going to come out on through different divisions of Warner, including Sah-B, World Renown and De'1, all got cancelled, including Head On. A few indie 12"s leaked, but basically the group Kamakaze were killed before they came out. And so Solo changed his name to Kyron (his real first name) and became the fourth and final official member of Screwball.

There's more reason why people and rap magazines often confuse Kamakaze with a specific single member of Screwball - because they're not wrong. In the 2000's, KL put out two singles - one through Hydra and then a later one on Traffic - both under the name Kamakaze, just using it as a personal alias. So if you bought "It's All Good," it tells you right on the cover that Kamakaze is one guy: KL of Screwball. So, sometimes Kamakaze means the group, and sometimes it just means KL. ::shrug::

Anyway, it's hard not to notice the similarity of their story with The Wu-Tang Clan's and Gravediggaz': dope disenfranchised artists who'd all had it rough coming up in the music business in the past coming together to form a stronger super group. In that sense (and possibly in others), Screwball is the Queensbridge Wu.

So Screwball took the name of a mutual friend of theirs who'd tragically passed on well before his time (R.I.P.), and and put their debut out themselves, "Screwed Up" on Screwball Records. Yeah, it was in affiliation with Hydra and their parent label, Sneak-Tip Records; but Screwball Records was its own thing which put out a couple other Screwball singles down the line... note the catalog number: SC-001.

After generating some serious buzz with Hydra Records, they signed to Tommy Boy's Black Label, where they released their debut album, Y2K and a bunch of hot singles. When The Black Label shut down shortly thereafter, they didn't skip a beat and went back to Hydra, releasing a ton of material, both collectively and individually with solo projects. It was a flurry of great music until 2004, when they all stopped rather suddenly. Only Poet kept putting out solo material.

Tragically, in 2008, KL passed away due to long-term health issues with asthma. R.I.P. A great MC from one of hip-hop's rawest underground crews; it's a great loss for us all.

So that's the key Screwball line-up. Those four men, pictured above, are the MCs who made up Screwball from their first record to their most recent in 2004. Buuuuut... That's not the very end of the story.

In 2008, an mp3-only album called Screwball Classics* was released. It was a largely just a collection of their past hits, but it also featured new music from a Screwball with an updated line-up. Hostyle is disappointingly out, leaving original members Blaq Poet and Kyron plus new members Scape Scrilla, Ty Nitty of The Infamous Mob (brother of the original man known as Screwball), and Versatile a.k.a. VS (she was that female MC on the NYG'z album). Since then, mp3s and Youtube videos have been popping up here and there, promising a new Screwball album. So we'll see what the future holds, but the Screwball MCs have a long legacy of coming back every time heads counted them out.


*Yes, since day 1 it's been referred to as a CD... and every place from Unkut to Screwball's own myspace page refers to a CD, but I do not believe such a thing exists. I have never been able to track one down, and believe me, I have looked. Even CDBaby, who have CD in their frikkin' name, only carry the mp3s. I mean, maybe if you met Blaq Poet after a show, he would burn you a CD of it... But I'm pretty convinced Screwball Classics was never actually released in any physical format.

Screwball Week, Day 3: Blaq Poet Beats Krs Down

(Youtube version is here.)

Screwball Week, Day 2: Screwed Up Set Straight, part 2

...And we're back! We're continuing directly from yesterday's post, in case you missed it, so you'll want to read that one first. And now let's not waste any time and jump right into CD #2:

Like a Gangster [CD exclusive] - Except for the fact that they spelled "Gangsta" as "Gangster" here, this is a direct life from Loyalty.

The Operation [CD exclusive] - Taken from Y2K.

Gorillas [CD exclusive] - Taken from Loyalty.

F.A.Y.B.A.N. [CD exclusive] - Taken from Y2K.

What the Deal? - This features Cormega and was previously released as a 12" single in 2002.

Where You At? [CD exclusive] - Taken from Loyalty.

On Point (RMX) - The original release came out back in the 90's, and this remix - by Godfather Don - was also included on the "I Ain't Saying Nothing" single.

Heat Is On (RMX) - Okay, the original "The Heat Is On" was on Y2K, and this isn't that version. Both versions feature Prodigy and are produced by Mike Heron, but this is distinctly different remix with a new instrumental. It's not unique to this album; though, it was originally released as a 12" single, b/w "Suck My Dick."

I Ain't Saying Nothing - This was released as a single in 2004 with a remix and a couple other dope B-sides.

Somethings Gotta Give [CD exclusive] - Taken from Hostyle's One-Eyed Maniac LP.

Crime Unit - A hot exclusive produced by Godfather Don quintessential Screwball, high energy and crazy hardcore at the same time.

Ride For Free - Another cool exclusive, produced by someone calling himself FBEE.

Who Shot Rudy? [CD exclusive] - Of course this isn't an exclusive; this is pretty much their most famous song. It was first released as a 12" single, and then featured on Y2K.

Taking All Bets - This was released as a 12" single in 2002, but not under the name Screwball. It's Kamakaze featuring Offdamental, and has a Royal Flush song on the B-side.

Screwed Up [CD exclusive] - You might think this is an exclusive, considering it's the title track and not featured on Y2K or Loyalty. But actually, it's their very first 12" single from 1996, and produced by The Beatnuts.

On the Real [CD exclusive] - This is an infamous song, known for existing in a couple of different versions. However, disappointingly, this is the least rare of the bunch: the version from Y2K, where they replaced Nas with Cormega and Havoc. Check out this post I wrote in 2007 for the full story of the different "On the Real"s.

Shouts [CD exclusive] - This is an exclusive; but it's just 45 seconds of shout-outs over the "On the Real" instrumental.

And thus ends the 2CD set of Screwed Up. But what about the 2LP? There are three tracks on there that aren't on the LP. Let's look at those:

You Love To Hear the Stories (Godfather Don Mix) - This is that original version I mentioned yesterday, from their infamous "Who Shot Rudy?" single.

Return Of the Hu-Haa - Taken from Hostyle's One-Eyed Maniac LP.

Be Careful What You Wish For - This is also taken from Hostyle's One-Eyed Maniac LP.

So, after all that, where are we? Well, there's a total of 5 new songs/ remixes that are only available on Screwed Up. The CD definitely has the better track-listing (boo!), with twenty-one songs not on the LP. Both versions have some of the exclusive songs, but only the CD has them all. The only unique stuff the LP has is the old, previously released mix of "You Love To Hear the Stories" and two more Hostyle tracks. Hostyle's album was released right around the same time as Screwed Up, by the way, which is why I think so many songs from that album are featured here - they were trying to sell us on his solo album.

I could see buying the vinyl version just to have some of these exclusive songs on wax, of course. But even though it's padded with way too many songs from Y2K and Loyalty, ultimately the CD remains essential for the exclusives that aren't even on the LP. And they're good, too; you'd be missing something to just ignore them because they're CD only. I know Poet and Solo were putting together a new Screwball group; but we'll never have another album by the original line-up (R.I.P. KL). So we can't afford to let material like this fall through the cracks.

Screwball Week, Day 1: Screwed Up Set Straight, part 1

It's been ages since I've done a "Week," huh? Well, here's one I've been intending to do for a while now: Screwball Week. Now, with all the vinyl Screwball managed to put out, collectively and separately, I could easily do Screwball Month, and with just a bit of stretching, I bet I could pull off Screwball Year. But I'll try to control myself, and keep this to just Screwball Week. heh heh

In 2004, Screwball had two albums in their pocket (not counting all their variant solo and side projects) and were working on their third, the unreleased (and never completed?) Return Of the Hu-Haaa. And since it had been a while since that second album, 2001's Loyalty, Hydra Records put out this interesting, and somewhat confusing, compilation album of their material: Screwed Up.

Screwed Up (mostly) avoids delving into any of the members' solo material, but still manages to be a double album's worth of stuff. It consists of tracks from the past two albums, sort of a Greatest Hits. But two albums can't make up a double album's worth of Greatest Hits on their own (you'd have to include every single song, basically, and then you'd just have a reissue on your hands), so in addition to being a Greatest Hits, it's also a B-sides and rarities collection, where they feature a lot of remixes and songs originally released only as the B-sides to their 12" singles. But, Screwball are still pretty underground, so their market was just heads who probably already had most of those 12" singles, so a necessity for the hardcore fans, they also threw in some unreleased mixes and stuff.

...None of which is distinguished between in the album's liner notes. And what I've read about this album online over the years shows that a lot of people are confused over just what's what on this album, beyond it being "just a bunch of Screwball songs." So, me being me, I've decided to break it down track-by-track, and see what came from where, and what's actually exclusive to Screwed Up. And finally, to answer the question: for the Screwball fan who has everything, is this worth picking up? So, get ready, it's gonna be a long list...

Oh shit, wait, there's an extra complication! The vinyl version of Screwed Up isn't the same as the CD version. The vinyl version is a double LP with sixteen tracks, and the CD is a double disc set with a whopping thirty-four tracks. And even though that means there's eighteen extra tracks on the CD set (trust me, I just took a math course), there's still stuff on the 2LP that isn't on the 2CD! I'm starting to see why people are confused.

Ok, the CD has the most tracks, so let's start there:

Stretch Armstrong / Poet (Intro) - This is new, presumably recorded for this compilation.

Urban Warfare (RMX) - Okay, "Urban Warfare" was on the Y2K album, produced by Mike Heron. This version is also produced by Mike Heron; in fact it's the same beat. So what's so "RMX"'d? It's a vocal remix, with entirely new verses. This is pretty kick-ass; the beat was one of the best on Y2k and it's just as awesome here. And they come just as tight on this version as the other.

Dirt Thugs - From the title, this seems like a brand new song. But it's really "First Blood," their collaboration with Godfather Don from the B-side of "H-O-S-T-Y-L-E" mistitled.

Torture [CD exclusive] - Featuring M.O.P.; this was taken from Loyalty.

Who? - An exclusive song produced by Ayatollah - fire!

That Shit [CD exclusive] - A banger taken from Y2K.

Take It There [CD exclusive] - Also from Y2K.

Guilty - This is from Hostyle's One-Eyed Maniac album. In fact, it was the single.

Seen It All [CD exclusive] - Taken from Y2K.

Loyalty [CD exclusive] - Taken from Loyalty... obviously.

The Blocks [CD exclusive] - Taken from Y2K.

HOSTYLE [CD exclusive] - Taken from Y2K.

Real Niggaz [CD exclusive] - Taken from Loyalty.

Greatest On Earth - This was the B-side to their 2002 single, "What the Deal."

Attn A&R Dept [CD exclusive] - Taken from Y2K.

You Love To Hear the Stories (Pete Rock RMX) [CD exclusive] - Ooh, a new remix of that dope track with MC Shan from Y2K! wait a minute... wasn't that version also produced by Pete Rock? So, I guess he did both versions? No, actually, the original version was produced by Godfather Don and was a 12" only release, but they remixed it for the (Y2K) album. So, really, this is just another direct lift from Y2K.

Be On Your Way [CD exclusive] - Produced by Mike Heron and featuring Fred Fowler from Shango (remember them? From Beat Street?) singing the hook, this is a Screwed Up exclusive.

And that's the end... of CD #1. There's still a-whole-nother CD to go. This is exhausting... I'm sitting here with the CD in my computer and a huge pile of 12"s and LPs over by the record player, running back and forth, figuring out which mixes are exclusive or taken from which release. So I'll take a break here, and return on Day 2 with the second disc, plus the LP's exclusive tracks, and my summation. (Continuation here.)

Who Needs Premier Anyway?

It's easy, and not entirely unwarranted, to put this 12" down for what it's not. One thing it's not, for instance, is produced at all by DJ Premier. Of course, a lot of 12"s aren't produced by DJ Premiere. But the difference is, when this particular 12" was first announced, they said it would be.

See, this is one of the earlier examples of the recent "limited" game... a 12" of "Wut's Poppin'" by Nut-Rageous on Poor Pocket Music that dropped in 2008. The song is taken off of one of Nut's CDs (Raw Nuts), but the big selling point of this limited (to 200 copies) 12" was the new DJ Premier remix, with an additional verse by Blaq Poet of Screwball, signed by Nutso and pressed on red vinyl. Sounds pretty awesome, right?

Well, unfortunately, it was later announced that, "Also as for the Wat's Poppin 12" Dj Premier & Blaq Poet love the original so much!! that they wanna leave it the same except for the added Blaq Poet verse and Premier on the intro introducing the record." So, no more DJ Premier track; now he's just going to introduce an alternate version of the original track with the Blaq Poet verse. That's disappointing. - BUT!! - But, to make up for that, The Mighty V.I.C. of The Beatnuts will instead be providing a new remix. So... a let down for Premier enthusiasts, but still a pretty compelling 12". And hey, even though there's no Premo remix, "Primo will be recording blaq Poet vocals and doing an intro talking in the begining of the record as well." So that's pretty sweet. So orders were taken at $30, which at least compared to the other early limiteds by DWG and Freestyle Records, was pretty reasonable.

Except, uh... well, to cut right to the chase: the 12" doesn't have a version with an additional Blaq Poet verse. It doesn't have Premier introducing the track. It doesn't have a Mighty V.I.C. remix. It's not pressed on red vinyl. And a lot of the copies weren't signed. Oh, and also more than 200 copies wound up being pressed, so it wasn't as limited as they claimed. So yeah. Some people were understandably disappointed.

Okay, we just bagged on this 12" because it had it coming, and I think we can all sympathize with people who pre-ordered a 12" with a whole set of unmet expectations. - BUT!! - But, now that we've finished doing that, let's talk about what a dope 12" it is and why it should be in everybody's collection!

"Wut's Poppin'" is a pretty nice, mellow track (produced by Ron Mills) featuring KL (RIP) of Screwball. It's a cool, steady head-nodder with a surprisingly broad appeal. This definitely has that radio summer jam vibe, but the MCs (especially KL) keep a nice street edge to it that you won't find on most other summer joints. KL and Nut have a nice chemistry together, and KL's slightly scratchy voice sounds especially cool over the track. It comes in Main, Clean, Instrumental and Acapella versions.

Then, you've got an exclusive B-side, "Nuts & Screws" on the B-side. As the title suggests, this is another Nut-Rageous and Screwball collaboration, this time featuring Blaq Poet and KL. Where the last track was smooth, this one's a banger, with old school blaxploitation style samples, Premier-style scratching for the hook and harder drums. This could easily fit in on a Screwball 'Greatest Hits' collection... which, if you're familiar with their full catalog, is really saying something. It's produced by 12 Finger Dan, but if you told me it was by Alchemist, I'd not only believe it, I'd say it was one of his strongest tracks. This track also comes with Instrumental (yay!) and Acapella versions.

Then, finally, we do get a "Wut's Poppin'" remix. It's not by Premier, V.I.C. or anybody else I've ever heard of, though. It's by DJ Brans France. Or maybe his name is DJ Brans and he's from France; the credits on the back cover are a little confusing. But, anyway, it's pretty nice. It switches up the atmosphere to a faster, harder track driven by pounding piano notes; the kind of beat you'd expect Kool G Rap to spit on. It's surprisingly effective in giving the song a whole new feel without falling to pieces like most remixes that get that ambitious tend to do.

So, if you can get over the fact that this isn't the killer 12" you were expecting (and maybe you were taken for a bit of a ride by the label); I think you'll find it's still pretty damn nice and definitely worth a spot in your crates. And since this was later sold at a standard 12" price - that is to say, about $6, as opposed to the original $30 people who got in early paid (ouch again!) - you should still find this one nice and affordable. Plus, as you see, it comes in a cool picture cover, and apparently some of the proceeds went to help KL's family, which takes a little bit of the sting out of the whole debacle.

LOTUG's Nas Bootleg

Ok, I covered all the other Undaground Butta releases, so I guess I might as do the final one. =) Although there's no artist credited on the label, this is Kamakazee's "On the Real," featuring Nas and Cormega. In an interview with Unkut.com, Blaq Poet of Screwball talked about how that song originally came about, "[w]ith that 'On The Real' shit, Marley had the DAT at his crib and Nas came up there one day and laid down shit first, to the beat. Then KL and Solo went up there and Marley was like 'Yo, I got some shit with Nas. Y'all cool with Nas, right?' 'Oh yeah, yeah. Nas is our man.' They jumped on the track, then Marley played it and motherfuckers was loving it." It was originally pressed up as the b-side to Kamakazee (the group Kamakazee was the duo of Screwball members KL and Solo, later known as Kyron)'s "The Bridge '95" 12". As an indie release from a then unknown group, it was a very small run; so when the B-side started turning up on mixtapes and playing on Marley Marl's Future Flavas show, a bootleg was inevitable.

The track's produced by Marley Marl, where he essentially just loops the very opening of The Soul Children's "Move Over" (listen to it; the first six seconds are pretty much the entire instrumental of "On the Real"). Well, Marley's name is on it, anyway. As to who actually produced it, K-Def had something to say, in his interview with Unkut, "I was on the radio one day, cause I used to the radio with Marley on pirate, I played that break for the first time and Marley had recorded that radio show and looped it up and then put Nas' vocals on it, and then claimed the fame for that track."

Now, a few of you reading this might be thinking, "hey; wait a second; I've got Nas's 'On the Real,' but it doesn't have KL and Solo on it." Yeah, there's actually been a couple versions of this song, though the beat never changes on any of 'em. First you have the original mix featured on this 12". But then, in 2000, Screwball included it as the final track on their Tommy Boy album, Y2K. But since Nas, as Hydra Records co-founder Jerry Famolari explained in his Unkut interview, "wanted a certain amount of money, so they took him off and they put Havoc and Mega on there." So, that's mix #2, with a new, alternate verse from Cormega and one from Mobb Deep's Havoc. Then there's mix #3 that came out in 2004. Nas included an "On the Real (Remix)" on his Illmatic 10th Anniversary reissue on Columbia, featuring his original verse from the first mix, and replacing any other MC's verses with two new ones of his own. Columbia and Ill WIll (Nas's imprint label) also put this version out on 12" that same year with clean, explicit and instrumental versions; b/w the other "unreleased" song from the reissue, the Large Professor produced, "Star Wars." According to The Record Inspector, however, some copies of this record (or at least one) are misprinted, featuring only the "Star Wars" b-side on both sides of the record. So listen to it in the store before you take it home. ;)

So, the Marley Marl/ Future Flavas connection sort of explains why this wound up being booted on The Lords Of the Underground's indie label, which otherwise stuck to putting out legit releases of their own music. DJ Mike Nice clarified on the DWG boards that the "[s]tory behind it was someone from the group left with a dat after a Marly session, their was some Real Live and Kamakazie joints on it as well." So, this was the second release on their label, and they gave the b-side over to Jac Swinga, DoItAll's little brother, to make his debut with his only released solo cut to date, "Coast II Coast."

Well, I say "solo," but actually the second verse is shared by two uncredited MCs Jac apparently met on the West coast. Anyway, they keep it short, and the weight of this song is all on Jac Swinga's shoulders, who carries it well. The production - which doesn't sound like Lord Jazz's more low-key approach during this era… could it be Marley? bounces along, with a nice little horn loop for the hook, as Jac Swinga, sounding kind of like UG using Masta Ace's Slaughtahouse flow, shines, narrating his trip "to LA, around the time of OJ." This song alone more than makes this 12" worth nabbing. Really, it's a shame those cats didn't use him a bit more.

All in all, a nice little 12", even if it is 50% boot.

Tags: Kamakazee, Nas, Screwball, Cormega, Jac Swinga, LOTUG, Lords Of the Underground