Sailing the Ocean Orange, part 2

In 2002, Ocean took one more stab at a solo career, this time with the Dutch. "Naturally" came out on Makin' Records/ Amo-Lab (in fact, the catalog number is AL001). When it's not a one-off record label, Amo-Lab is a 2-man crew from the Netherlands consisting of Shy (best known for his membership in the Postmen), who also raps on this, and Precise, who co-produced the track along with someone named Kurt Lawrence.

Well, once again, this is a dope, under-appreciated little gem. The track is cool with bouncy horns and a rumbly bassline. Both Ocean and Shy (whose accent seems as American as anyone's) sound good, kicking concept-free freestyle rhymes. Like the last 12", it's less about clever punchlines (though there's clearly a wit behind Ocean's rhymes), profound poetry or complex, bazillion-syllable rhymes, then just solid flows that blending with the beat.

There's Dirty, Clean and Instrumental versions on the A-side, then a "Long-Dirty" version on the B-side (along with a "Long-Instrumental"). The bulk of the difference just seems to be carrying out a protracted hook at the end, so it's hard to say if one version is really preferable to the other. But if you're feeling the rhythm, it's nice to have a version that lasts a little longer.

I don't know if this is 100% as impressive as the earlier 12", but it's a very worthy follow-up. Shy isn't quite the MC that Ocean is; but he holds up is end more than sufficiently. And if you'd rather hear freestyle/battle-type rhymes compared to the higher concept stuff of the last song, then that'll be another plus for ya. And once again, it's easily obtained for cheap.

Sadly, this was the final release not only from Ocean, but for the label, Makin' Records. As for where Ocean is today, it's hard to say. He doesn't seem to've stayed in the music hustle, but a 2005 interview with Jean Grae at HipHopCore.net tells us, "I see Ocean often, Aggie[the third member of Natural Resource] once in a while. Everyone is doing well."

Sailing the Ocean Orange, part 1

When Brooklyn's Natural Resource exploded on the scene in '96 with their kick-ass song "Baseball," the underground scene fell promptly in love with What What. She, in turn, immediately recognized and jumped onto that momentum, turning it into a successful solo career with a new name: Jean Grae. Natural Resource, sadly, only managed to put out one more 12" before seemingly being forgotten about completely. But Natural Resource was a hit-making unit thanks to more than just one member. Ocean also made a two-prong assault on the solo scene, which was sadly overlooked.

Ocean's first 12" came out on Natural Resource's home label, Makin' Records in 2000. Technically, you might point out, that's actually before Jean put out any of her own music, but remember, she was doing all those 12"s with Herbaliser way back in '97. Now... ok. I'll make one more point about Ms. Grae, and then I'll shut up about her, because this post is meant to be about Ocean. You may see this 12" listed online as "featuring Jean Grae," but if you look on the label, she's not credited (you guys know you can click to enlarge all my scans, right?). That's because she is on here, but only doing backing adlibs behind one of the verses. It's a good addition to the song, the element works; but if the only reason you pick this is up is to complete your Jean Grae collection, you're gonna be disappointed.

But there's plenty of other good reasons to pick this up. Chiefly that Ocean was a clever, underrated MC who comes with a slick flow over a nice, head-nodding beat here. There's just one song: "The Usual," but it comes in two distinct versions, "Sober Nights" and "Intoxicated Nights;" and you get Clean, Dirty and Instrumental mixes for both. Lyrically, they're both the same: fun (but surprisingly angry) day-in-the-life type rhymes, where our narrator has clearly opted to go the intoxicated, rather than sober route. But the instrumentals are completely different - though they do evoke a similar atmosphere - one produced by Run Run Shaw (another alias of Jean Grae, so much for not mentioning her again!), and the other by a guy named god's CHILD, who I've never heard of; but I gotta say his version edges out the other one. It's really hot, and I'm surprised you didn't hear more DJs using this for freestyles and radio junk back when this came out. Some of the rhymes are funny, but both versions are really all about just how fresh Ocean sounds riding over the dope beat(s).

I don't know what else to say besides that this sounds really nice. It's a completely worthy entry in the Natural Resource oeuvre, with a Fugees-in-their-prime vibe. So if you've slept on this, do yourself a favor and go find a copy. It's an undeserved neglect, but the upside is that Ocean's releases are not hard to track down at all, and for cheap. 8)

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.

Whither Verb?

^Trying a new thing this time... uploading the video direct to the blog. I'm also putting the vid up on the Youtube channel, though; so the people who watch my stuff there won't miss out.

If you prefer it or hate it, let me know.

The Black Hummingbird and The Queen of Hip Hop Soul

I think we can all agree that Father MC's best MCing was in his Stupid Fresh Records day. But he was still doing quality work on his first two albums, before he went from writing sincere relationship songs to playing an ill-suited pimp/player role on his later material (if you'll remember, even his hit "One Nite Stand" from his second album, was about how he didn't want a one night stand, but rather a committed relationship). He seemed to figure this out later in his career, and at least devoted his albums to being equal parts love songs and player songs; but by that time he didn't have the producers.

"I'll Do 4 U" is Father MC's second single (of four) off of his first album, Father's Day; and with this release he was 2 for 2 in discovering huge R&B phenomenons with his back-up singers. He blew up Jodeci with "Treat Them How They Want To Be Treated" and now he was debuting Mary J. Blige.

Now, Cheryl Lynn's "Got To Be Real" is one of those rare songs that just sounds perfect as a rap track no matter how many times you use it. Sure, you can wag your finger at an artist using it for their lack of originality, but in the end you'll be digging it regardless. And Prince Markie Dee and his Soul Convention do a nice job updating it to a New Jack Swing rap/R&B hybrid.

The extended version featured on this 12" is a solid two minutes longer than what was included on the album. It has some extended instrumentation, but the primary focus is on additional singing by Blige, allowing her to break out of the strict confinements of the hook and flex her stylings. It's not a vast improvement over the album version... in that it's largely the same; but for my money it's the definitive version, and there's no reason to go back to spinning the shorter mix after you've got this one.

Lyrically, it starts out a bit slow, with some pretty weak, generic lines about how he'll treat you right and "get your bubble bath ready," but it gets a little more compelling when he talks about how he guards his feelings in the early stages of a relationship and refers to himself, in a rather clever metaphor as "the black hummingbird." It's not mind blowing poetic brilliance rained down from the Heavens, but clearly more thought was put into it than your typical pop radio tune.

This is one crossover hit that earned the success it found, and it's hard not to like it even if it's not typically to your tastes. The 12" also features the shorter Radio Version and the Acappella, not to mention the swanky picture cover. While hardcore collectors are paying upwards of $1500 for rare "random rap" 12"s, it's nice to remember that there's still heaps of nice little 12"'s like this that you can stick in your crates for pennies.

Slip N Slide Society, part 2

Ok, so in part 1 I talked about how Society was signed to Slip-N-Slide, who ultimately sat on his album and never put out any of his music. But he wasn't left with absolutely nothing to show for his years spent at the label... almost nothing, certainly; but not absolutely nothing. He did manage to land three guest spots on Trick Daddy records, two of which were released on 12".

The first Trick Daddy/ Society collaboration to be released was on the B-side to his hit single "Nann" - or "Nann Nigga" as the original, radio unfriendly version was called - his colorful duet with Trina. First a few notes about this 12" - like you see in my labelscan, everyone of these 12""s has that word after "Trina" covered up with black marker. That's because it's crosing out the word "dirty" (after scanning it, I took a little solvent to the label and can now make it out) and the first track is in fact the clean version. So they're all that way; that's the way they shipped from the label. Also, you want to be sure to get the original "Nann" 12", not the "Nann (Remix)" 12", which doesn't include the Society track.

Ok, so that out of the way, let's get to that B-side. It's called "Living In a World," and like the A-side, was also included on Trick's 1998 album, www.thug.com. It's produced by Rush and you can tell it's his obligatory "message" song, because it features a sappy hook by a children's choir, credited only as The Children's Choir, that goes, "Living in a world where hearts are cold, yeah yay, ya'll/ Livin' in a city where thugs don't live that long, so/ Sleepin' in a home where only gangstas roam, all nite long; and I'm/ Thuggin' there for days wit my G's and we pray... 'help us, Lawd!'" The instrumental is well done, though, with some varying elements that even switches up for Society's verse. Speaking of Society's verse, he obviously outshines Trick on his own track, but Trick Daddy's verse is respectable and sincere. But Society manages to bring those elements as well as a much tighter flow and more compelling, rapid-fire wordplay for a killer verse that defines the phrase "next level:"

"Never confuse love and lust;
Retailate bust for bust.
You can trust in us; we spit that venomous.
It's either them or us, ash to ash, sell the dust;
We go to war for the peace, ignore the police.
I still believe that it's the East that invented...
See, the West complemented; they always represent it.
And all my peoples down South keeps it weed-scented!
Better focus when I put this hocus pocus on the CD;
I drop mine in braile so them blind cats can read me.
I'm the cat that curiosity killed. Prophecy filled.
I'm still waters that run deeper than hoe pussy.
Get pushy in the clutch, roll up like dutch mastas;
I cuts and slashes, plus I flows like Casius.
It's warless clashes; you need credit in the last days.
So when them gats spray, do crime pay, when you get shot?
That's why I stay calm[/com] like w w w dot. CD
For who seeks the actual... article;
You heard it live; it's certified, mechanic on the mother ship,
The alien. I changed the course of them with the wings;
I would love to be considered sin in the physical form,
Like I'm born to be crucified, and mother was born to cry.
Taught: bitches born to live long and bastards are born to die,
And God and the devil just don't see eye to eye.
'Cause ya'll thugs don't understand that this devil gone always lie."

That's the kind of verse that just screams, "put my album out!" And he sounds damn nice over the track. Unfortunately, you only get Clean and Dirty versions of this song, as the bulk of the 12" is full of "Nann" versions.

Three years later, Society was still chillin' on the Slip-N-Slide roster when Trick Daddy released his next album, Thugs Are Us. This time, Trick released his message song (yes, with another chorus by The Children's Choir, although this time they go uncredited) as the advance single, complete with a big budget video and the whole nine. Titled "Amerika" on the album, but retitled to the more politically correct "America" for the single, this song's instrumental, produced by the daringly named Righteous Funk Boogie (who produced a lot for Trick Daddy, including the aforementioned hit "Nann"), is very reminiscent of "Living In a World." Nobody says so, but this is clearly meant to be some kind of remake or sequel to "Living In a World." Trick Daddy ups his game alittle here, with a tighter rhyme scheme and a direct message to the president. But while Society still delivers a solid verse, he definitely doesn't come off as impressively as the first. He brings a more direct, and angry, message... but (in a way, possibly, to his credit) doesn't show off his skills here. And the fact that Trick wraps things up with another verse of his own at the end, this time. I suspect there was a concious effort by all parties involved not to let Trick Daddy be outshined again here, on his "important" single.

On the plus side, you do get the Acapella and Instrumental, along with the Clean and Dirty versions on this 12". And you also get those four versions of Trick's posse cut "Get On Up," featuring The Lost Tribe, Money Mark of Tre +6 and JV on the B-side.

Unfortunately, the last collabo - "The Hotness" - never made it onto a 12"; it's just another Thugs are Us album track. This is a nice, freestyle track where both just flex their freestyles and bragging skills over a dope, east coast sounding beat produced by Black Mob Group. Trick even seems to have dropped his Southern drawl for this one - at first I thought he gave Society a solo joint on his album as a little showcase. Well, on closer listening, there's clearly two MCs; but I'm really not convinced that other MC on the track is actualy Trick Daddy, and not some unnamed other contributer. The hook features someone doing a screaming DJ shouting everyone out, which is a little annoying but sets the tone perfectly for what they're going for. The drums are even repeatedly scratched in. Both MC's take turns passing the mic back and forth... lyrically, it's nothing monsterous, but just fun, Boot Camp Clik-sounding freestyle rhymes like, "we're worldwide without the web/ Grateful without the dead/ Juicy without the fruit... or the loops/ For the troops/ I kick the ill titantic flow/ Society, the black DiCaprio/With one more year to go/ The hot shit 'bout to blow!"

Anyway, all three tracks are definitely worth checking for, even if you're the type to ordinarily hate Trick Daddy with a passion (IMO, he's really not that bad; but that's a whole other series of blog posts - haha). Society displays talents and skills possibly even in advance of his earlier work, so it's a shame that "the right people" didn't take notice of him here and give him his shine. Oh well. At least Trick Daddy vinyl is cheap and plentiful, so you can pick these up on a whim and at least enjoy a little more quality Society.

Slip N Slide Society, part 1

Most of you reading this are probably already familiar with Marcus Effinger, a.k.a. Society, but just in case... he was a conscious MC with some very east coast influences who started out with Professor Griff, then wound up releasing his own, very dope EP (and 12") on Luke Records before they went bankrupt. That's all the catching up I have patience for; but if you haven't already, check out his EP - you'll like it.

He seemed to drop off the scene after that, but he actually signed to Slip-N-Slide Records. He was due to drop an album called Godflesh: Solids Liquids Gases in May '97 (see the ad, above), but it never came out. Notice it says it's featuring Lord Mecca and Mighty Buda... those are the other MCs from Griff and Society's Field Nigguhz Klick, as featured on Society and Griff's albums. I remember calling the label back when I was at The Source, and they acted like I was crazy asking about Society. They literally told me all they cared about was Trick Daddy, who was blowing up at the time; and they wouldn't say anymore about him. Nice, huh?

Well, Society's unfruitful stint on Slip-N-Slide (read the fine print of that ad... apparently the graphics are also by "Society Productions") was pretty much the last the world heard of Society, except in 2005 he dropped a guest verse on Public Enemy's New Whirl Odor album. But is Slip-N-Slide sitting on a completed Godflesh? How much of it was recorded? Considering they already had the guest appearances worked out for the ad, I'm guessing that it was recorded. So the question becomes: what are the chances somebody could liberate it from their vaults?

The Black Whirlwind

Tonight, we're starting with the B-side, gang.

I'd never heard of this guy before stumbling upon his 12", but apparently Etcetera is a Brooklyn MC and producer who's put out a few records over the years, and is still doing it. There's no date on the label, but according to an old, online press-kit of his, this dropped in 2000. And if you look closely at the label scan, you can see why I picked it up: "Tonight" is a posse cut featuring fellow Brooklynites UG and Gauge.

And when I got it home and plopped it down on the tables, this song turned out to be even better than I was expecting. The beat is hard and energetic, perfect for being torn up by some Brooklyn hardrocks, with cracking drums and wailing industrial-like samples reminiscent of Public Enemy records if they made beats for Stretch and Bobbito freestyle sessions; and both UG and Gauge bring their A-game, spitting two verses apiece. UG dances the line between his classic mystic style and uncompromising ruggedness:

"Who wanna battle?
I travel like bullets through gun barrels!
Get grappled and tackled to the gravel;
Clap you with chrome,
Crackle the bones
Under your vest.
David Koresh
Burnin' your flesh, fricassee.
No one is sicker than me;
Spittin' degrees
Hotter than the sun.
...
The black whirlwind.
Ya world ends!
Your friends and your girl,
It's over.
I separate your head from your shoulder;
Flying guillotine.
Rhymes kill a team,
Murder verbally.
Who ain't heard of me,
I'll send 'em straight to surgery
Leakin' burgundy.
You vs. me, UG,
An ill specimen
That assembles weapons in milliseconds
To kill your section
And then vanish...
Into thin air!"

Etcetera isn't quite as ill as these two, but he keeps up with a more playful punchline-y flow. The hook is a clever play on a lyric from "The Show."

So, how about the A-side? It's called "Beez Like That," and without the guest verses, it certainly lacks the excitement of "Tonight," but it shows that Etcetera can do alright on his own, and the beat's still pretty tight. It's good, and he has some amusing lines, but you probably won't flip this record over too often to find out.

So, like I said, Etcetera is still doing it. He has a myspace here... some of his new tracks seem pretty bland and mainstream to me, but I guess if you like the kinda stuff 50 Cent is doing nowadays, you might like it. He does have another track with Gauge that's at least worth listening to ("Oh No - Version II"), but nothing suggests he's coming with anything as ill as this joint.

The Ill Funk Freaker Has Landed!

Woohoo! Thank you, Skim!

The Ill Funk Freaker EP is the latest release from One Leg Up Records. In fact, it's even more limited than the rest of their limited releases (200 pressed of each), because this is their special (OLU-LT01) bonus record, that was only made available for people who ordered one of every record One Leg Up Records has produced so far. Our man Haj tells us that only about 100 were pressed, which puts this right next to DWG001 as possibly the rarest of the contemporary limited releases.

And it's fantastic! It's eight songs (which practically makes it an LP rather than an EP) by Godfather Don, all recorded from 1993-1995. To quote OLU, they're "unreleased songs found on Godfather Don’s original half-inch studio reels. Stored away for years, OLU and Don transported, baked, and dumped these last few remnants of his early 90’s home studio to find these treasures. What was uncovered was truly special!" Boy, I'll say!

The production on most of these cuts leans towards being a little more subtler/atmospheric than, say, The Slave of New York EP (which I blogged about here), although "Shoot the Two" has a nice early Showbiz feel. Two of the beats you may've heard before from the instrumental EP series Hydra Beats - now we can finally hear the finished tracks and with their intended vocals. Most of these are solo jawns, but "Shoot the Two" features Mic L of Da Funky Orphanz, and "Slaves (Straight Jacket Mix)" is a remix of a Cenobites track featuring Kool Keith in top, completely-bugged-the-fuck-out form, which was released on OLU's earlier Cenobites EP, Demented Thoughts (which I blogged about here). The title cut is probably my favorite, but his lyrics on "Yeah" are especially tight and really the whole EP is great from beginning to end.

So One Leg Up's first series five-part (plus bonus) series is up... but they'=ve announced another 5-part of limited releases coming soon! Can it be as dope as the first five? I have high hopes. 8)

Tho' Up with Doo Wop

This record is all about the b-side, surprisingly. It's surprising because you'd think a collaboration between Kool G. Rap, M.O.P. and Canibus made in the early 2000's would be a gem of a banger. But it's not at all.

The downfall here is the beat. It's got this deep, bass-heavy garbage can style drum track, which I guess is meant to elicit a dark and ominous atmosphere, but it just doesn't. The rest of the tinny track, full of beeps and "whoops" sounds like some cringe-worthy Hustle & Flow reject. And you can just imagine how well that kind of beat, the "dark" kettle drums and a posse cut of fast, New York rappers mix together. You'd think some suburban nerd just combined the acapellas from three different songs and put them onto his own sloppy beat to show off his "ultimate posse cut" for Youtube. But actually it was produced by Doo Wop for his State Vs. Doo Wop mixtape (this 12" was released as the only way to get these songs unmixed).

The beat switches up for the first few bars of Canibus' verse to "The Symphony" instrumental; but just when you start to get into it, it switches right back to the old mess. Lyrically, Canibus comes with one of his better verses, but M.O.P. and Kool G Rap phone it in; and the whole song is such a mess it's not even worth trying to salvage your favorite MCs' verses. Oh, and Doo Wop's hook is weaksauce, too. An acappella would've been blessing, but you just get album, radio and instrumental mixes.

Fortunately, though, the B-side suffers (almost) none of the ailments of the A-side. Yeah, it's another track from the mix-tape, but this one is really all about Big Pun killing it. The beat is much better, since Doo Wop wisely sticks with one that was used successfully before. But even with that said, he tweaks it nicely; and Pun sounds great over it. Also unlike the last track, Doo Wop spits a verse. It's not too great (and following Pun just highlights the great, unflattering distance between their levels of talent), but it's passable. The only thing that doesn't work here is (again) an irritating hook from Doo Wop. You might want to just turn this song off when it's halfway through... but the first half is fire!

Most people who bought this were probably suckered in by the A-side. But at least the B-side pays off, so it's still a nice little pick up in the end.

Kid 'N Play's Decidedly Non-Demos

"Once again, this is rumor control..."

Ok. There's a lot of misinformation on the internet. I can remember downloading a Cage and Chino XL duet on Napster, only to find out it was a portion of the Siah & Yeshua da Poed "Day Like Any Other" remix featuring El-P. How you could confuse the two, I have no idea. Some people just don't know what the heck they've got and come up with some craziness.

The problem is that it spreads. And all of a sudden even the biggest sites are giving out false info like it's candy. Heck, at one point my discographies had a few "false positives" in them, and I had to ultimately institute a policy where I didn't post anyone's additions/corrections without actually seeing the record in question, because unfortunately finding corroborating sources online doesn't mean a whole anymore.

So, this latest bit of untruth didn't come as that much of a surprise to me when I first saw it pop up. What does surprise me, though, is how it's taken off all around the internet, and no fewer than four (reputable!) blogs and god knows how many message boards have all posted the same handful of tracks as "unreleased Kid 'N Play demos."

I don't know what jokester actually started this, but the legend circulating these six songs seems to be something like: Kid 'N Play hooked up with the Beatnuts to record these six songs as a demo tape to pitch to labels a fourth album after being dropped by Select Records. Somehow, some behind the scenes music ninja found a copy and ripped them onto the 'net for the world to finally hear these totally super-exclusive unreleased jewels. Wowee!

But actually, these are just six songs ripped from the House Party 3 soundtrack, back when they were still on Select Records. In fact, one of the songs ("Make Some Noize") is from the big musical number in the middle of the film with TLC. I mean, come on. How much less underground or rare can you get than a House Party soundtrack? Here's a link where you can buy the soundtrack on Amazon for under $1. I actually recommend it, because the rest of the soundtrack isn't bad either. It features an exclusive Red Hot Lover Tone song, nice tracks by Sylk Smoov and AMG, plus the only released song by a pretty cool group the RAS Posse.

What's more, one of those six tracks - "Bounce" - even came out as a single. Nice hot pink lettering on that picture cover. There's four versions on the 12", including the LP Version, Instrumental, "KNPmental" and the Video Version. Wait a minute, there was a video?



Yeah... full of clips from the movie and everything. I don't know how much more released this "unreleased" joint could be, short of a FEMA-funded operation to drop CD singles out of helicopters across the nation.

Now, my point here isn't to to shame anyone who's passed this misinformation along (and I won't post any smarmy, finger-wagging links)... Like I said above, I've been guilty of the same thing in the past, and allowed a few bits of misinformation onto my site as well, that took me a long time to weed out. My point is just to hopefully, once and for all, kill this one damn stupid rumor dead, and maybe serve as a gentle reminder to all of us hip-hop bloggers and webmasters the importance of fact-checking the information we receive in our in-box before posting it. Because the internet should be the place people can go to clear this kind of nonsense up, not perpetuate it.