The Divine Beings are Winner!

On Three Times Dope's somewhat maligned second album, they flipped a killer sample from a Curtis Mayfield/ Impressions classic called "We're a Winner."  It's just one of those loops, with a perfectly subtle bassline playing underneath a completely catchy guitar, horn and... xylophone(??) riff.  You know, just one of those loops that blows your mind and makes you want to hear it over and over again.  But lyrically, though EST is of course a great MC, it's kind of a flat narrative rap about relationships.  Not exactly the kind of hyped up, skill flexing flow you want to accompany such a fresh, high energy break.  So I was excited two years later when Ali Dee, the white kid from The Next School who became one of The Bomb Squad, wound up using it for his lead solo single, "Who's da Flava."  He's on a higher energy tongue-flipping freestyle flow like you'd hope for, and it's got a pretty funky scratch breakdown.

Let's face it, though, Dee's a bit corny.  So I was excited to buy the cassingle, but once I really dug into it, it fell a little short.  I still played it a bunch (it helped that he had G Rap drop a guest verse on the B-side), but it could never really hit the spot.  Someone still needed to come around and really rock the track right.  And that's when the Divine Beings came out.

The Divine Beings are the two people you see on that picture cover up there: The Wizard (the dude on the right) a.k.a. Air Smooth and Da Gr81 (the girl on the left).  They were a duo out of Philly who dropped their first indie 12" in 1992.  I never discovered that record until many years later, though, thanks to the internet.  I, like most of us, first encountered them when they were briefly signed to a major and came out with this "Funky Ultimatum" single on Warner Bros' Reprise Records in 1993.

There's actually a step in between their first single and their Reprise single, but again, I didn't know about it at the time.  They first released this 12" on 4x4 Records.  Then Reprise picked it up to give it broader, nationwide distribution.  The 4x4 had an exclusive B-side called "Sounds of Hip-Hop," but this one had a cool picture cover and more mixes of the title track.  And the title track was the one I was amped for anyway, because that's the one over "We're a Winner," with the best MCing to date.

The Wizard, who co-produced this with Kwame, does the majority of the rhyming, and I believe, the cuts.  He's on a fun, tongue-twisting freestyle tip very much in the same vein as Ali Dee.  But apart from a few limp, dated punchlines ("we make more noise than Bugle Boys"), he's just a little nicer on the mic, and definitely less corny.  Then, to really sell this song, Gr81 comes in and kills it with a smooth if not downright sultry, jazzy vibe.  Think of Jean Grae on those Herbalizer records, when she was still known as What? What?.  Just a short verse but it's niiiice.

At least on the Extended Version.  The Single and Radio Edits, also on this 12", and even the one they had the video for, actually cuts out Gr8's verse.  It's just like when they cut Ice Cube out of "Express Yourself" - The song still works without it, but seriously why??  Anyway you cut it, though, this is one must-have single, and thankfully their easiest to find cheap, because of Reprise.

Unfortunately, though, it wasn't the break-out success it should've been, and Reprise dropped the Beings.  Gr81 wound up appearing on Kwame's last album.  In fact, I asked about her in my interview with him, and this is what he said: "Oh, the GR81. She was an artist outta Philly that I was trying to develop. She was dope. I was working with this AIDS awareness repertoire group that I did some appearances with and music for. And she was one of the kids in the group. Well, she wasn’t a kid, but she was one of the people in the group. I thought she was kinda hot, so I said come on this album and let’s do a duet. That’s how that one happened." And that's about all we got from the Divine Beings... until Dope Folks released a bunch of tracks from their shelved album on vinyl a couple years ago.  Kwame's on the intro and one of the tracks features an early appearance by Black Thought.  All the Divine Beings stuff was dope, and it's a real shame they're still barely recognized to this day.  They're certainly the best to ever rock this "Winner" loop.

A Nice Little Rarity from Oxygen and Edan

Jamille Records is back, and if you haven't seen it yet, check out their amazing documentary on old school Milwaukee Hip-Hop.  This time, though, they've broadened their coverage to reissue some rare music from Staten Long Island artists Sputnik Brown.  Although, actually, their last record - MC Just Divine "Get Right," back in 2015 - was from them, too.  It's a little confusing if you're not a devoted fan, so I'll quickly clarify: the lead MC of the group Sputnik Brown is Oxygen a.k.a. MC Just Divine a.k.a. Jon Shaft.  So nowadays, you see those names getting tossed around interchangeably because they're all the same guy, except for the fact that Sputnik Brown is the group, so it also includes members E the 5th, plus Tres Best and Musa from the House of Reps.  You've probably seen their projects being brought to you by labels like Diggers With Gratitude and Slice of Spice.  I've covered 'em a couple times in the past.

Now, this right here is their latest, but if you're familiar with Jamille, you know they primarily specialize in reissuing rare and lost music, and this is no exception.  The title track "U Havin' Fun Yet?" is the opener from Sputnik's 2007 12" single on High Water Music.  The 12" was a group project, but this particular song was an Oxygen solo cut.  Anyway, it's not suuuuper rare, so I'm a little surprised to see it repressed on 7" already; but it's a super funky head nodder, with a powerfully addictive bassline and upbeat flow, so I'll allow it.  It's a short song (just over two minutes), so even on the 7" they include the instrumental on the same side.

But this certainly doesn't render that original 12" obsolete, as it leaves off the group's two B-sides, "Unadulterated" and "The Brownout" (plus their instrumentals).  So if you're a real fan, you'll still have to track that one down and cop it.  And they're all good songs.  But of the three, I'd say "U Havin' Fun Yet?" is easily the best.  So if you're just looking for a nice little 7" with a hot song, this'll do ya.

The draw for more serious collectors, though, is surely the B-side: "Idealism" featuring Edan on the turntables.  "Idealism" is a song Oxygen released as Jon Shaft on 12" in 1992, but that only featured alternate mixes.  This particular version is the only one with Edan, and was never pressed on wax until now.  It's actually a live recording, performed in-store at Academy Records.  Up 'till now, it's only been available on super rare cassette tapes that Oxygen self-released of the entire night's performance.  Here, the song's been isolated and mastered as a single.  It is a live recording though, so sound quality isn't crystal studio quality.  For the most part, it's pleasingly clean, but you'll definitely hear the sibilance crackle when the volume peaks.  But it's the absolute best we're ever going to get until the invention of time machines.

And hey, if that still isn't enough for you, this record also includes a tight radio freestyle Oxygen kicked in 2006.  So it's a pretty packed little 7".

Like basically everything nowadays, this is a limited release, but not too limited.  There are 500 copies available on traditional black vinyl, and an additional 100 pressed on colored goldish brown wax.  It comes in a nice sticker cover, replicating the original 12" artwork.  And it's not one of those $100-type limited releases; this is priced to move and getting a surprisingly wide release for Jamille Records, i.e. Fat Beats has it.  So hopefully this record introduces the crew to some new fans.  For a tiny 45, it's got something for everybody: newcomers just discovering these guys for the first time, and die-hards who already have all the old stuff.  Good deal.  👍

Season Of the Sickness

(This one took a while!  One Sick man has released more dope music in a single season than many do in a decade.  Youtube version is here.)

The Great, and Only Slightly Mangled, Adventures of Slick Rick

(There's a lot of misinformation out there, but it's worth the sifting through! Youtube version is here.)

Kool Moe Dee vs. The Sugarhill Gang

(Who wore it better?  Kool Moe Dee or The Sugarhill Gang?  You Decide!  Youtube version is here.)

My Afro Should've Been On Fire In '93!

When I heard that The Outlaw Posse's lost album was finally getting released, my first thought was: I don't even know who these guys were!  But then I realized this is the original name of the duo Brothers Like Outlaw, who were out on Gee Street in the early 90s.  They were a UK group who never really broke into the US market, so even still I didn't know 'em too well.  But I at least remembered their video for "Trapped Into Darkness" and having one or two of their older songs, which I recall being fairly well produced, on a compilation album from back in the day.

So yeah, their story in short is that it's two guys: MC Bello B and producer K-Gee (not actual brothers).  They had a couple 12"s first, but their debut album was My Afro's On Fire!, which I don't think was ever released stateside.  Their second and last album, The Oneness Of II Minds In Unison, at least made it into US stores.  But it was one of those tapes you'd see on the shelf and just leave there because you didn't really know who they were.  So anyway, they broke up after that, K-Gee went on to produce for other artists (like Me Phi Me and K7, then later expanding out of Hip-Hop to guys like All Saints, George Michael and Rod Stewart) and Bello was that guy who rapped on The KLF's techno hit "What Time Is Love."

Well, they had one last, third album together, which they'd recorded back in 1993; but Gee Street never put it out.  So in 2018, they released My Afro's On Fire Vol. 2 digitally, and even pressed up a 7" single of two of the tracks.  And now in 2019, they're finally making the whole LP available on wax (including those two songs from last year's 7") via Hip Hop Be Bop, that label who's been putting out those Silver Fox and Sugar Bear singles.  It's available on black, white (white) or orange vinyl, all in a slick picture cover with stickers; or on a CD, which includes a bonus track called "Funk It Up."

So, if you're not already a fan, you might be looking at the above credits I listed and thinking, Me Phi Me, K7, The KLF... not the most alluring track record.  I mean, Me Phi Me actually wasn't so bad; he just needed to ditch that twangy acoustic guitar.  And K7 had some interesting production... But you know what I mean.  You don't want to hear an album by the "What Time Is Love" rapper, right?  But this is doesn't sound like all that.  It doesn't even sound like the Brothers Like Outlaw album; it's better.  It's almost hard to reconcile that these are the same dudes.

A couple songs, like "Ghetto Child," sound like the kind of stuff they were doing for Gee Street at the time.  And that's not a criticism; it's got some creative, smooth but jazzy production with samples you won't recognize right away.  But most of the album sounds like some Hip-Hop purist stuff that I never would've expected from these guys in '93.  Although, now with the power of hindsight and google, I realize it does match up more with their first UK album, that was more on that tighter tip.  So it makes perfect sense they've called this My Afro's On Fire Vol. 2.

The production does outshine the vocals a little bit.  The only criticism you could give the poor true school sounding material here is that you will recognize a ton of the samples.  The only "Yeah Ha Ha" uses the same funky bassline as Kid 'N Play's "Bounce," though had this album come out when it was supposed to, they would've beaten them to that punch.  "In Trouble" sounds fantastic, but no better than all the other Hip-Hop records that looped up "Nautilus" the same way, like DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's "Jazzy's Groove," Lord Shafiyq's "My Mic Is On Fire," PRT's "Word Is Bond" or even Soul II Soul's "Jazzie's Groove."  But usually, when you've heard the samples, you haven't heard them like this.  "Hey Mr Officer" uses CMW's classic "This Is Compton" piano roll and drums, but transforms it by adding very different musical elements.  "Ready 4 Action"uses the same Marvin Gaye loop from Scarface's classic "A Minute To Pray," and many others, but here he turns it into a high energy with some upbeat horns and really fresh cuts.  In fact, K-Gee's slick incorporation of the turntables may be this album's secret weapon.

The MCing on the other hand won't threaten anybody's Top 5.  But don't get it twisted; if you've only heard him on "What Time Is Love," he definitely sounds more nimble here than that.  He has a healthy versatility that's able to leave the clunkiness of that song behind and adapt to a variety of tracks, be it playful freestyles or substantive songs with a message.  At his worst, he's a little stiff, but still able to slip into some earnest feeling and nuance into his delivery.  On "Enforce the Positive," he slips into a style reminiscent of Master Ace's "I Got Ta," but then on "Freestyle Poetry" he's surprisingly able to step up to the plate and live up to skill flexing style of the time.

It helps that there are no skits or filler here.  And we're not being overrun with a pack of guests. "Freestyle Poetry" features MCM from Caveman, and that's it.  It's just ten solid, well produced songs that probably would've garnered them some new fans if this had managed to come out when it was supposed to.  So it's nice to get this now, but I'm kind of bummed to've miss the chance to catch this material naturally when it was supposed to have come out.  I'm sure it would've inspired me to go on the hunt for Vol. 1 ...which, remember, wouldn't've been easy in the US before the internet.

The War On Vanilla Ice!

(1991 was both a great and a terrible year for the ice man...  April Fool's Day!  Youtube version is here.)

Tragedy's LA Drive-By with Str8-G

Now here's a rapper I haven't thought about in a super long time: Str8-G.  I copped his album on cassette in '94, played it some back then, and then that's kinda been it.  But just this week Ben on Twitter suggested I talk about his stuff with Tragedy, and it all flashed back for me: oh yeah, Tragedy was on that album!

Str8-G, for those who missed out, was an LA/ Compton rapper very much in the vein of the early DJ Quik crew, which is what sold me on him back in the day.  He had a high pitched voice, laying in the cut between more traditional gangsta rap and light-hearted sex rap stuff with plenty of post-Chronic G-Funk influence.  His first record was a shameless knock-off of AMG's "Jiggable Pie," with a couple more serious B-sides.  And that's what got him signed to a major for his one album.  He even got Quik to do a remix of his single, "Bring the Funk," which turned out to be his career peak.  You could tell he was really patterning himself off these guys and aspired to roll with them, and honestly, he had a nice flow that would've sound really good on Quik's albums if that had ever blossomed.  But he was a little let down by slightly flatter production by Dazzie Dee and some generic studio house producers.

So with all this west coast talk, who's the last guy you'd expect to turn up in the album credits?  The man who dubbed Queensbridge the new Kuwait, Tragedy.  But yeah, he's got two songs on Str8's album, as a producer, writer and vocals, including the original version of "Bring the Funk" that Quik remixed for the single and video.  It's actually pretty interesting, with a dark, East coast sounding core vibe, including deep bass and "Skull Snap" drums.  They also make great use of a Humpty Hump vocal sample.  But then they lay this syrupy Troutman/ Dre G-funk electronic whistle thing over it, which really hasn't aged well.  But yeah, it's produced and written by Trag, and just in case you might be thinking this might be some other random dude calling himself Tragedy, he speaks on the intro of the song.  This is definitely our Juice Crew Allstar.

And their other collaboration is even more interesting.  Once again, it's written and produced by Tragedy, and vocally he contributes a bit more, though he never kicks a proper verse.  No, this one's called "Drama" and it's a pure East coast sounding-track with squealing horns, a screeching Prince vocal sample (the same one Esham used to use) and a dark street vibe.  Sonically, this would've sounded right at home on Black Rage.  But lyrically it's a narrative on some LA Boyz N da Hood shit, except instead of a proper gang it's Str8-G and his boys, and Trag.

"Three oh-motherfuckin' clock in the mornin';
I'm lookin' at my nigga Tragedy and he's yawnin'.
I'm puttin' on my dickies and yo Trag, it's on.
(Went into the drawer and got the motherfuckin' chrome!)"

...The parenthetical bits being performed by Trag himself.  In the song, they get in their Caddy, pick up their boys and do a drive-by.  "I said 'oh shit, what you doin'?"  And Trag says, "man, that's some nigga my bitch was screwin'!"  And it's all about this gun fight that's gotten out of control.  "And now I'm lookin' for Trag 'cause he's not on my ass, thinkin' about the niggas that's blast - in' on me.  No, it's not me, 'cause the niggas never can see Str8-G.  And no I'm not from they set, and now them niggas don't look at me in a 'vette, 'cause I'm creepin' like a motherfucker.  And I don't give a fuck because I'm not a fuckin' sucker."  This is definitely not the kind of song you expect to hear The Intelligent Hoodlum on, though I guess it ends with his kind of moral, since Str8's character gets shot, and I think we're supposed to conclude that they never should've gotten involved in that drama.  But even for Str8-G, this is pretty hardcore, as a guy who seemed much more comfortable doing songs like "Pussy Time" and "Everything's Fine (In the Summertime)."

And of course it's all the more ironic because the very next record Tragedy would release is "LA, LA," where he rallied his Queens based against the west.  But if you're wondering how these two got together, I think the answer's disappointingly simple.  Str8-G was signed to Tuff Break Records, which was a short-lived division of A&M Records, which was Tragedy's label.  In fact, this was the last thing he did before splitting with them and going indie.  And Str8's only other single was a remix (that leaned much further into the G-funk sound) of his title track with Barry White singing the chorus... Barry was also briefly signed to A&M at that time; so clearly they were just shoving all their artists into studios together.  In fact, that big sticker you see on the cassette case is advertising Barry's appearance, because A&M didn't know enough to be putting DJ Quik's name in big letters on the front instead, even though that's who we were really excited to hear in '94.

But yeah, that was about it for Trag and Str8-G's involvement with A&M, a label which never seemed comfortable with the Hip-Hop genre.  Str8-G pretty well disappeared after that one album.  There's a new guy calling himself Str8 G, but it's a totally different person.  Poking around discogs, I noticed that the real Str8-G did come back to do one song with B-Low O of The Mackadelics in 2007, and he actually came off really nice on there.  It's a shame he didn't get to do a little more with Quik and those guys, but oh well.

Wake Your Daughter Up, The R.A.S. Posse's Back!

Besides that Baby Chill reissue, P-Quest Revivals has an even more interesting new release.  When I first heard they were putting out unreleased music by R.A.S. Posse, a.k.a. Riddem and Soul, the name rang a bell, but I couldn't place it.  They're from the House Party 3 soundtrack!  And they performed in the movie itself.  Well, outside of that, these Brooklyn cats just had one indie 12", the self titled "R.A.S. Posse" on Kid Entertainment Records.  Yep, as in that Kid, because he was genuinely managing them, just like they said in the movie.  Unfortunately, Kid 'N Play were having their own problems transitioning into the 90s, so R.A.S.'s stuff got left on the shelf.  That is until now that P-Quest got a hold of their archives, a whole collection of material recorded between 1992 and 1993.

The Posse consists of rugged reggae MC Bigga Don, Soul G, a.k.a. Easy G or ZG of The Undefeated Three (Funkmaster Wizard Wiz's old group) who kicks a distinctly playful American style ("I'm quick with the giz-nift of gab, the vocab, I smoke ya like a spliz-niff") and also produces, plus a singer named Robbie Irie who's on so many songs, he should at least qualify as an ancillary member.

The tone here is really interesting.  The production is rich and varied.  Sometimes you'll recognize some loops, but they're either paired with some other unexpected samples or just used in a very different type of song.  My favorite example of this has got to be "Lazy Body," that uses the signature music from Special Ed's "I'm the Magnificent" for some funny raps dunking on their lazy girlfriends, like an even catchier version of UTFO's under-appreciated "Beef Pattie."  To put it in terms of rap blogs, this is Wake Your Daughter Up music, not Unkut music.  And that's not a bad thing; I wish more unreleased stuff that wasn't strictly purist would get rescued from the vaults.  A couple songs, like "We Are the Teachers" and Money, Weed, Hoes" are a little rougher and definitely incorporate more hardcore elements from their time, like screeching horns and shouted hooks.  But, you know.  Think The UMCs' second album, not 36 Chambers.

Their actual House Party 3 song itself is left off of here, but instead we get an unreleased demo version.  The only really noticeable difference is that the final version fades the bassline from Ed O. G's "Bug-A-Boo" in and out of the mix, though, which the demo version doesn't really bother with.  That bass sounded really good, so I'd say the House Party 3 version is easily the preferable one, but since that's already out and easily accessible, it's cool to get this version instead as a historical artifact if nothing else.

Their Kid Entertainment "R.A.S. Posse" song is on here, too; though dedicated fans will still want to track down that original 12", since they left off the B-side, a pure reggae (as opposed to Ragga Hip-Hop, with G's rapping and their usual Hip-Hop beats) love song called "Love Me."  But I can see why they left it off; that's really an outlier for the crew, who I'd definitely described as Hip-Hop with a Reggae Twist, as opposed to Reggae with a Hip-Hop twist.  The only "pure reggae" song on this collection is the Dancehall Remix of a song called "Well Run Dry," which is quite different from the main Hip-Hop version that's also on here.

Yeah, there's one or two remixes on here.  The whole album is 21 tracks, with the first being a quick intro (a snippet from House Party 3 where Kid talks about the Posse), and one specifically demarcated as a bonus track.  So basically 18 songs and two additional remixes, and those "Well Run Dry" mixes are practically two entirely different songs.  The other remixed track here is "The Posse" (not to be confused with "R.A.S. Posse"), which is a pretty tight track that uses a sample you'll recognize from Pete Rock's killer remix of Da Youngsta's "Pass the Mic."  The other mix is the Freestyle Version, which sounds just like you'd think, alternate off-the-head lyrics roughly recorded in one pass, as opposed the more polished professional mix.  So it's basically just a fun lyrical remix.

And that bonus track?  It's an unreleased Cool Supreme (also of the Undefeated Three, and the classic "B Boys Style") song that features Bigga Don.  It has a similar production style, and Cool's flow and humor is just like Soul's with just a slightly deeper voice.  So it's just like another R.A.S. song; you probably wouldn't even catch the difference if it wasn't labeled.

So this is another very limited CD, restricted to only 100 copies.  It's brand new for 2019, but P-Quest already put out an equally limited (yes, 100 copies) vinyl EP of highlights in 2017.  That's a sticker cover pressed on green vinyl, and as of this writing, copies of both are still available from the label.  All six songs from the vinyl are on this CD, plus of course, 16 more.  I don't know if these recordings were taken from DATs, cassettes or what, but the sound quality is very clear and strong.  None of these are "sorry, these were ripped from low quality tapes but that's all that exists" like we sometimes have to settle for on projects like these.  I hope this projects succeeds, because Hip-Hop's an awesomely broad scene, and I'd love to see more diverse artists from different periods get their unreleased brought back.  And when they do, I'd like to see bigger runs than just 100.  In fact, my next post is going to get a little deeper in that.

This Is How We Chill From 1990 Until...

(You could call this Slip N Slide Society, part 3.  Youtube version is here.)

Fatal Thoughts of Spurmacide

And speaking of Jersey Hip-Hop, here's a recent, slept on release.  It's an unreleased B-Fyne album called looked If Lookz Could Kill from P-Quest Revivals and Nustalgic Records.  B-Fyne is the guy from Blaque Spurm/ The Funk Family and other projects I've covered on this blog.  But this is his first solo project, an album recorded from 1996-1997 with Joe The Butcher when he was working at RuffNation Records.

It's entirely produced by Tony D, except for one song by YZ, and jumps in with an immediate head nodder that you'll want to put on repeat.  This sets up a tight, unified tone of somewhat smooth, modern-sounding beats across the whole album.  Some of the punchlines ("flows hard like silicone titties," "suffering from WackMCitis") could've been left behind in the 90s, but for the most part, the lyricism is still appealing.  There are some lines just for us New Jerseyians, like "find me in NJ, the Turnpike way, stay off Exit 8, one before Great Adventure, what you get into if you choose to enter my zone."  We'll make the immediate "Exit 7A = Great Adventure" association, but nobody else will.  "Real Kadeal" starts off sounding pretty flat, but once the hook stops and he starts flowing over the track, and then the cuts come in, it really takes off.

The album does start to run out of steam a little bit in the second half.  "Plot Thickens" is kind of a silly sex narrative rap, along the lines of Cella Dwellas' "Perfect Match" or an early Fresh Prince record without the wit.  "Pretty MF With the Dread" also suffers from a clunky hook, despite having a really fresh track which makes great use of "Who Got the Props" and a jazzy sax sample.  And it's not like the other half is bereft of highlights; "Buttascotch" is a tight duet with his little brother, Baby Chill.  And speaking of guest verses, the next track features YZ and Blaque Spurm fellow Papa Doc.

This is a CD-only release right now, though I can't help but notice that the slightly short track-listing (nine songs, and one's a short outro) feels ideal for a single LP.  Like all of P-Quest's Revivals, it's a properly pressed CD, though, not a CD-R.  It's limited to only 100 copies, the first 20 of which came with a promo card; but those are long gone, so if you're interested, don't wait too long.

Although that's not to say there are never any second chances.  You may remember I wrote about Baby Chill's unreleased album Wake Up Call coming from P-Quest and Nustalgic in 2016.  That was limited to 100 CDs, too, and sold out ages ago.  But now it's back, reissued in 2019 with new artwork and three additional bonus tracks.  Two of them are just radio freestyles, which aren't as exciting as complete songs, but still pretty cool.  He definitely impresses with his calm yet confident flow over "My Mind's Playing Tricks On Me" and Nas's "Halftime."

But the third bonus track is a complete, never heard before song, produced by Tony D in the early 90s.  It's called "Nut Junkie," and yes, it means what you think it does: a bit of a reference to his Secret Squirrels thing, but mostly it's about nuts of the busted variety.  It's a tight, busy track, with two sung hooks, one by a female R&B singer, and then a reggae guy chanting about being a "junkie, a junkie, a punanny junkie.  Me no thing for sensei, 'cause me a punanny junkie."  As you can guess, it's pretty all pretty irreverent and honestly one of the best songs on the album.

This one's also limited to a 100 CDs.  I don't know if the bonus tracks make it worth double-dipping if you already copped the 2016 edition.  But they definitely take the sting out of being stuck with a second pressing if you missed the first one; and the important thing is that more music is being restored and finally released to the fans.