Losing Grand Daddy IU a few months back is one of the ones that hit me the hardest, and pretty much purely for reasons of meritocracy. You know, sometimes it's hard to explain why it strikes you so much when a particular famous artist passes. Maybe something corny they released came out when you were a child and left an over-sized impact, or something in their private life just happened to sync up with yours and it became an inspiration. I did get to interview the man once, so there was a bit of a personal edge to it. But mainly it just hit me because he was one a disappointingly small handful of artists who I was a huge fan of growing up and was putting out music just as good today. There's plenty of artists I was a fan of then, and still a decent amount I am now. But not a lot where I was just excited to get a new album from in the 1990s and the 2020s. Especially with no disappointing missteps in between.
And it's not lost on me that I've got an album of his that seemingly nobody else has. I mean, they should. It was sold online, seemingly exclusively, on a site called The Catacombz that lasted years selling mostly underground CDs, but also the odd tape, record, magazine and even "Herbalz." Essentially the Canadian version of outfits like Atak, Foolblown and AccessHipHop. So I always feel like a bunch of other people must've been copping stuff there semi-regularly for them to have stayed in business. But I've never seen it even hinted at online anywhere other than my own content, and when I brought it up to IU, even he was surprised.
It's simply called I.U. Volume #1. I'm pretty certain there never was a Volume #2.
Is it a bootleg? Hard to say... It's a CDR in a slim case with a cheap cover and sticker label, but that's true of tons of indie and self-released music from those days. I've gotten OG Day 1 releases on Maxwell tapes and Office Max CDs. And IU was in no way signed to any kind of label, even a little indie one, in 2002 when this came out. It's marked as "Steady Flow Ent.," which was his own imprint that many of his later releases that we know are legit came out on. But it features a ton of exclusive material never released online or anywhere else, so it's not something just anybody out of the loop could've thrown together. Obviously, IU telling me he'd never heard of it is a huge red flag ("Wow… Who in the fuck did that? That’s crazy. Somebody dipped in my stash. Wow… Holy shit" is a direct quote), but if this was a tour CD or something he spread around a little as a demo, it makes sense he might've forgotten years later, or just didn't want to acknowledge on the record. Especially since he was planning to release some of this music on upcoming projects, as he wound up doing.
Anyway, those are the facts as I know them, so now you know as much as I do. The official description Catacombz wrote for its listing is, "The 'Smooth Assasin[.sic]' finally returns w/ a bomb underground album chock full of joints spanning from after 'Lead Pipe' to present. The whole CD is good, I.U. has skills no doubt & is a vet in the game. The guest spots are few but quality such as: 2Pac Shakur, DV Alias Chryst & more!"
Does any of that sound familiar? Didn't I say IU released some of this stuff later? Yes, the 2Pac guest spot is "Ghetto Blues," which came out on his 2007 album Stick 2 the Script. But while he's worked with DV a couple of times, the song here isn't any of those. This one's called "Get Your Doe." It's a killer, smooth and dark track. DV sings on the hook and also has a proper verse. An uncredited female also sings on it a little, and there's a crazy Chinese vocal sample blended into the mix. Honestly, I think it's better than any of their collaborations that were released.
At the end of the day, almost all of this album is still exclusive. "One Night Stand" later came out on his 2012 mp3-only album Self Made Man, and there's a track called "Spitting," which according to a name drop, was produced by The Mole Men, but it's not "Face Down" - maybe it's a from a mixtape? Basically everything else is original, and even those songs had never been released before when this came out. A couple of these songs did come out on the 2008 J-Love mixCD Return Of the Smooth Assassin (so I guess that's one other person with a copy of this album) - "Spittin" and "Mind Over Matter" - but that's about it. Four songs and this album is nineteen tracks deep.
And it's pretty damn tight. A couple tracks use that early 2000s club style, which isn't the best, but even then he comes hard and makes it work. Like "Ya Know," has this kind of boop boop beat with handclaps and a few software pack samples. But it also has slow, deep bass notes and IU flowing like crazy in duet with an MC named Scuzz. And plenty of his other tracks, like "Time Is Hard" and "Stop Fronting" just have his classic, stripped down sample-based production style we come to him for. There's only one track I'd label weak, "Surfing Shit" featuring somebody called E-Zae, where they're clearly just having fun flipping some weird surf music record and turning it into a down south club song with a corny hook ("let me see you do that wave, girl. Now do that wave, girl. Now shake your thing, girl. Now what's your name, girl?") Even then, it's listenable and kinda catchy, but it's way below IU's par.
The last track is one of the illest: "Conspiracy Theory." It's got cracking drums and a tight piano sample, pure underground NY, but then this low humming and Malcolm X speeches come in for the hook. And IU is coming hard and angry, though without getting "We Got da Gats" shouty. And he's speaking on some serious, controversial topics, like "white folks feel like niggas need 'em, how egotistic/ when we ruled the planet before Europeans even existed" - I can definitely see every label telling him there was no way they were touching this track! Admittedly, as a pretty agnostic dude, the religious angle doesn't land as hard for me; but this is a serious side of IU I wish we'd gotten to see more of.
"This shit is listed, go look it up if you feel. In fact, open your fucking' bible, I'ma show you what's real! In Genesis 2-6, God brought the rain down. In Verse 7 he formed Adam from the dirt of the ground. But dirt and rain make mud, which means Adam was brown. Now can you handle that? Knowin' the original man's black? ...Once you acknowledge I'm right, than you must have to admit that your preacher and your history teacher was full of shit!" And he's not just mad about ancient history. "While these crackers still mad screamin' OJ did it, JonBenet Ramsey's parents is walkin' and they nanny got acquitted? Coppers kill blacks all day and get acquitted, and all that fuckin' tax we pay? Them niggas split it! Why is it less time for powder cocaine than crack, and the only crime you hear about is black on black? You never hear about white on white crime, or Jew on Jew crime; but all that'll change in due time!" It's wild that this song has gone virtually unheard.
So how about actually getting some of this unreleased stuff out, you ask? There's not just this album, but all kinds of killer songs he either just released for free, or were mp3-only (try finding a copy of his 2000s ITunes only EP Long Island's Finest anywhere on Earth today), dating all the way back to the Cold Chillin' era. Well, it's been tried. DWG reached out to him about putting out an EP of their favorite unreleased tracks, but they were never able to work out the deal. And more recently I tried to talk Dust & Dope into it, and they were game; but IU wasn't interested because he just wanted to focus on his new music "and let that old shit lie." Now that he's no longer with us, who can we even go talk to? Has someone inherited the rights to his catalog and/ or his masters? If that's you and you see this, definitely reach out to me or somebody, because I promise you there's interest. I'll help for free, because his fans deserve to hear this stuff.
But then again, maybe a bunch of you are sitting out there with your own copies of this. Because it was openly for sale for four years or so. 🤷 I'm really missing IU, and you know, I kinda miss The Catacombz, too.
Monday, April 10, 2023
The Lost(?) Grand Daddy IU Album
Friday, January 11, 2013
Top mp3-Only Albums I Wish Came Out On CD





All those wild, early Anticon projects that never quite made it out the gate - I know North American Adonis was never finished and the sound quality sucked because the original DATs got damaged or whatever. But I'd still love a CD of the best I could get, and I know from the old Lunchroom forums that I'm not alone! Also Stuffed Animals, Pick me for President... even "Digital Lydias"... All that stuff Anticon knows they've got rotting away in their vaults. Run that shit, bitches!

Edit 1/12/2013: Whoops! Can't believe I forgot this one!
Earl Sweatshirt: Earl - Can't believe this isn't purchasable. Somebody missed out on a lot of money there. I'd love to see a legit, physical release of this one. I'd even happily trade any of the other Odd Future releases that did get nice, physical releases for this one. Even better than a CD, though... I want this on cassette! If you forget that this came out in 2010, it fits in so perfectly with the those great, ultra-underground 4-track tapes from the 90s. You might consider that a lost era now (though those Gurp City guys are keeping it alive), but actually Tyler and co. have brought it to a whole new audience without even realizing it... no wonder 2Mex dissed 'em! Couldn't you just picture this as an Atak exclusive?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Werner Interviews Grand Daddy IU! (Part 2)

...continued from the previous post.
And then, in the late ‘90’s, you came out on Universal Records as a part of the Juice Crew 3rd Millennium. What was the deal with that project?|
I don’t know. That was Fly Ty and Mr. Magic; that was their shit. They called me up like, “yo. We need you to produce a track. We’re gonna do this, um, Juice Crew shit and whatever whatever.” I was like, “I-ight.”
And was there, at one time, ever going to be a whole Juice Crew 3rd Millennium album or something?
Nah… (Laughs) Fly Ty and Mr. Magic were some funny cats. They were wheelin’ and dealin’, you know what I’m saying? They had somehow got up in somebody’s ear in Universal and got them to give them a budget. But they ain’t had no artists, no acts! So they just threw some shit together and were like, “yo, this is gonna be the… Juice Crew 3rd Millennium or whatever. Let’s just put some shit together and let’s get these checks.”
Yeah, because on the label, it mentions a Mr. Magic sampler album called Mr. Magic's Greatest Flavors, that never came out.
Yeah, it never came out. They ain’t pushed that single! And the single was hot. They could’ve done something, but they just was in it for the check. Niggas was just tryin’ to get their checks, that’s all.
And Oz who was on that track… was he the same Oz from your independent 12”, “Oz’s Track?”
Yeah, from Hempstead, Terrace Ave. Me, him, and my other cat who’s locked up now… we was gonna do something, but they couldn’t get along. So that shit never panned out.
But he wasn’t ever actually considered part of Steady Flow, was he?
Yeah…
Who exactly was? And who is now?
Big Snow, Chapelle, Oz, my brother… like, a lot of motherfuckers. DuQuan. But now everybody just went their fuckin’ separate ways. Now, it’s just a few niggas left holdin’ it down.
And are any of them involved with the music, really, now? Like, are any of them going to turn up on the next Grand Daddy IU project, or…?
Nah, they just roll with me.
‘Cause I saw Big Snow had, like, a track or two up on his myspace…
Yeah, he’s still doin’ it. A little something.
Now, who was that on your first album, talking on like “Sugar Free” and…
Ah! Easy Rick the playa! (laughs) He’s alright… He’s sick now. Got cancer; all kinds of wild shit… in the kidney…
Damn. …Well, then you had… when the Marco Polo LP came out on Rawkus, he had a song with you on the promo CD, called “Veteran?” But it never came out on the album.
Yeah, ‘cause the album was already done by the time we linked up. He was just doin’ a mix-tape for his shit.
Oh, ok. So is there a chance that’ll wind up on the B-side to his next 12” or something?
“Veteran?” That shit’s gonna be on my joint that’s coming out.
Ok, yeah, I was gonna ask that. You got an album coming out? What’s the go with that?
Yeah, it’s on Steady Flow… through Red Line Distribution. It’s called Stick To the Script, and I believe it’s… October 23rd, or some shit like that? October twenty-something, I don’t even know, but shit is hot. Strictly hip-hop, you know what I’m sayin’? The “Veteran” track is gonna be on there, one or two of the tracks that’s on my myspace are probably gonna be on there… “Take Off Your Clothes” and “Regrets.” It’s nineteen joints, mostly done by me; I did thirteen or fourteen.
And who did the other ones?
DJ Doom did one: “Regrets.” Freedom did “Take Off Your Clothes;” he’s some piano cat from out here in Queens. Chucky Madness did “Fuck With I.U.” Blunt did “Double Remy” and, damn… somebody else did one more. Oh, I’m buggin’. Marco Polo! And I also can’t forget: Large Professor did “Mack Of the Year.”
Oh, I thought I read an interview with you saying the tracks from that 12” were gonna be, like, that 12” only.
It was. But the cat from the distributor, Jameson, he wanted that motherfucker put on there. So I was like, “whatever.”
So is he putting on both of the tracks, or just the B-side?
Just “Mack Of the Year.”
So, you had an online only EP, Long Island’s Finest. Are any of those tracks… I think you sort of mentioned… will any of those songs be on the new album?
Nah. I ain’t putting any of that shit on that.
Ok, so is there any chance of that material getting any kind of a physical release? A CD or vinyl?
Nah. Or... nah; I don’t believe so. I don’t know anything about that shit. I’m trying to move on. Keep it movin’.
I heard some of it, though; and there was some good stuff. Like that track with Pudgee…
Oh shit! That was on there? “Back In the Days?” Damn, I be buggin’. Well, that’s gonna be on the album, though. I ain’t know that shit was on there. Damn…
Yeah, I thought it was cool you hooked up with Pudgee again, because he was another really talented rapper, who had a great first album but then really didn’t have the push from his label for his later stuff. But he’s stayed in the game, putting out material.
Yeah, he be floatin’ around, here and there. He be writin’ R&B songs and all kinds of shit.
And you had one other - pretty rare, actually – album. I just found one online site that’s been selling it, just called I.U. Volume 1.
Huh?
I.U. Volume 1? It would’ve been, like, 2003 or something like that maybe?
Wow. I don’t know nothing about that.
It’s like a full album, not like a mix-CD or anything. Nineteen tracks, including one with 2Pac, and yeah… none of them were previously released anywhere else.
And they were selling that shit online? Get the fuck out of town!
Yeah, I think it’s still available. I can send you the link…
Yeah, please do that. Oh shit! Oh shit! Wow. Yeah, definitely send that shit tonight, because I gotta find out who this is, because they’re definitely getting’ their ass robbed.
Damn, I thought you just put that out yourself, because it’s even got “Steady Flow” written on the CD like it came out on the Steady Flow label…
Wow… Who in the fuck did that? That’s crazy. Somebody dipped in my stash. Wow… Holy shit.
So, that’s about it for my questions… Is there anything you want to add, say to the people reading this?
Just cop that shit. October 23rd, that Tuesday, Stick To the Script. Cop that. Hot shit, nah’ mean?
Is there any chance we’re gonna get a vinyl of that?
Well, that’s what the distributor wanna do, but I don’t know. That vinyl shit ain’t really worth it nowadays. You know what I’m saying? Maybe. Maybe a vinyl EP.
Well, it probably works better for a more old school MC with a little roots, you know? Like, kids will just be like, “let me download whatever the latest G-Unit track is to my I-Pod,” but us older heads are still buying the vinyl.
Yeah, I might do that. Do a vinyl EP and add an extra track that’s not on the album. We’ll see.
Tags: Grand Daddy I.U.
Werner Interviews Grand Daddy IU! (Part 1)
I had a chance to speak with Grand Daddy I.U. on the strength of some of the posts I made about his records here and on Youtube, and I had a lot of questions I was dying to ask him. He was really cool, open, and we got right into it, so let's do the same:
Ok, I guess we’ll start with some of your earlier material… On the production of your first LP, of course there’s production credits, but I’ve read interviews where you talk about how you came in with some of the tracks already essentially done and all… so I was just wondering if you could say, between yourself, DJ Kay Cee, Cool V, etc; just who produced what?
Well, basically, me and my brother did everything besides “Soul Touch.” Biz did that. And that’s about it, really.
And did Kay Cee do much production work, then, or just the scratching?
Yeah… me and him formulated all the tracks before we went to the studio. So, when we went in, we knew what we wanted to sample, what drums we wanted to put in, you know? And Doc was the engineer; he just made it happen. And Cool V was there; he was like the overseer. Biz was like never even there in the studio, really.
And is Kay Cee still down with you now?
Yeah.
Is he still working with you on the new stuff?
Nah, nah, nah. He ain’t been working on the new stuff, but he’s still around.
So, at that time, you had the single “Something New,” and that beat was kinda going around a little bit… Like Hi-C used it on “I’m Not Your Puppet…”
Who?
Hi-C, a west coast rapper... was down with DJ Quik.
Oh, I don’t know about him. I know Nice & Smooth had used it…
Right; they chopped it a little differently, though…
They chopped it in half. They didn’t use the whole shit. That’s why I was like, “You played yourself. Why the fuck? That shit’s hot to death! Why didn’t you use the whole shit?” So, they didn’t use thewhole thing, so I was like, “fuck that shit.” But then I heard that Marley Marl had did it for somebody…
Yeah, Tragedy and Craig G.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, that shit ain’t hit! My shit was better than that shit, obviously.
Yeah, yours was a successful single. But when you were doing it, then, you didn’t know that anybody else was using it?
No. I knew that Nice & Smooth had used it, but they ain’t used the whole thing. I was like, “fuck it. I’ma just go ahead and use the whole shit.” And I know that nigga Marley Marl was on the radio and he said something slick, some slick little comment…
Yeah, he even says it on the song. He says, “Now you know this is the first place you heard this beat right here… let’s see how many jump on the dick.”
Some shit, I don’t know. Whatever.
I wasn’t sure if he was talking about you, or Hi-C, or anyone specific…
I don’t know who he was talkin’ about, but I don’t give a fuck! What’s he gonna do, nigga? Can’t do nothing to me, so I don’t give a fuck. I did it, and I came off with it. Whoever don’t like it, I don’t give a fuck. If you’re mad, you’re mad. Swallow it.
(Laughs)
Word up.
Ok; and then, more recently, you put out an EP…. Smooth Assassin – the Classics. And there was a track on there that was never released, with Biz Markie. What was that recorded for; when was it recorded?
Yeah… That was like… ’92?
So that was originally gonna be for the second album?
Yeah, but the sample. They couldn’t clear the sample. Like, mad shit was supposed to be on that album, but they couldn’t clear the samples.
Oh ok, yeah. ‘Cause when I heard it, I thought that was a really good song; I was surprised it never got released.
Yeah, they couldn’t clear the sample because Biz fucked that all up because he didn’t clear that umm, what’s the name? I forgot.
On the third album, for “Alone Again?”
“Alone Again,” yeah. He didn’t clear that shit. Then, after that, they was getting on everybody. They were crackin’ down on sampled shit. And then they had NWA and Ice-T and all them motherfuckers talking all that shit – that gangster rap shit – “Fuck the Police,” “Kill the Cops” and all that shit, and Warner Bros started crackin’ down on all the lyrics. Then a lot of old school artists that you would get the samples from, like Bobby Womack and James Brown and these motherfuckers didn’t wanna clear no samples if you were saying certain shit in your lyrics. And back then, you know, I was saying all kinds of wild shit.
So, does that mean there are other tracks like that that didn’t make the album?
Yeah, a whole damn bunch! A whole bunch of shit…
So does that mean there’s a chance we’ll get a release of some of that, like on The Classics EP?
Nah, fuck that shit. Leave that old shit where it’s at.
Yeah, but that one track was really good and your first two albums were like classics, so…
I’m on some new shit now.
Right. So let me ask you now, coming up to the second album… with “Represent,” the single had some different lyrics than what wound up on the album ["Word to father, hot just like lava. Blow up the spot like the Japs did Pearl Harbor" became "Word to father, hot just like lava. Step to the U? Yo, kid, don't even bother!" And "refuse to pay dues; I use the uz and kill off whole crews like Hitler did Jews" became "refuse to pay dues; I use the uz, kill off whole crew, and lay back and sip brews."].
Yeah.
So, was that a label decision?
Of course.
Yeah, ‘cause obviously I can see on the one hand how it’s potentially offensive…
Uh-huh…
But I don’t know if it’s really any more offensive than a lot of what was coming out on that label at the time, with like Kool G Rap and all. Or even other tracks you did.
Well, the thing is… It wasn’t even supposed to be offensive; I was just… That was just a fact, something that happened, you know what I’m saying? So I don’t see why it could’ve been offensive. If some guy gets run over with a car, and I say in my rhyme, “I’ll run you over like he just got run over,” that’s not offensive – he just got run over by a car!
So, was it that they’d gotten complaints when the single came out, or…?
No, they got no complaints! Just… as soon as they heard it… The main boss up there was Lenny Fitzberg[sp? sic?]. Soon as he heard it, he was like, “nah. Can’t say that.”
So, ok, then in ’94 you came out on an Atlanta-based label, Z Records?
Yeah, that was my man, Tony P. He used to be the engineer at Libra Digital; it was Tony A. and Tony P. When the studio shut down, he moved to Atlanta. He got with some African cat, who owned some oil fields, who gave him some dough to start a little label and shit. He ain’t know how to run no label! Know what I’m saying? He just had the opportunity because the cat gave him some fucking bread. So we just went ahead and did whatever. I just got my bread from that shit and bounced.
So, was it just the one 12”?
Yeah, that was just a one-shot deal; we knew that shit wasn’t goin’ nowhere! But the African cat had dough, so we were like, “fuck it…”
And who was that the MC on the B-Side? X-Filez?
Yeah, that was some Atlanta cat that Tony P. was working with. I ain’t know that nigga from nowhere.
Yeah, when I first found that 12”, I wasn’t even sure it was you… But then I saw “Steady Flow” in the credits, so I picked it up…
Yeah, that was some ol’… Strictly for the bread.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Snagglepuss Week, Day 5
^Video blog!!
(More original content created for this blog, as opposed to linking some random Youtube vids created by somebody else.)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
SF12002 x 2?
^Video blog!!
(As always, this is pure, original content created for this blog; not just me posting some random Youtube link.)
Friday, June 15, 2007
SFLO12002!
^Video blog!!
(Once again, this is pure, original content created for this blog; not just me linking something by somebody else.)
Saturday, May 26, 2007
SF12002?
^Video blog!!
(Original content created for this blog; not just linking something by somebody else.)
Friday, February 2, 2007
I.U. in Hotlanta

Both songs are co-produced by IU (I believe this is his first release without the "Grand Daddy" prefix, by the way) and Anothony Papamichael, aka Tony P, who also plays the guitar and keyboards. The basis, then, is live instrumentation rather than sampling... the results aren't outstanding, but they're pretty cool and have a nice, organic feel. There's also a remix, which puts the emphasis on a strong bassline, again played live by Tony P. Both versions feature a hook sung by Alfreda Gerald, and the b-side features an MC named X-Filez, who holds his own with that 90's indie NY style that sounds like it came straight out of the Dolo Records vault. Lyrically, IU comes with the kind of hardcore thug raps with a bent towards clever rhymes you'd expect if you're familiar with any of his post-Smooth Assassin material: "I keep the code of the streets, play for keeps, ain't no repentin'. I buck and I don't give a fuck if you was Bill Clinton. If I ain't heard of you, I'ma murder you with a thirty-two inserted through your neck, then jet in a phat convertible."
I dunno how IU wound up on a small record label from Atlanta... I'm guessing Z (or Zee, it's spelled both ways on the label) Records is Tony P's label (IU's production is credited as "for Steady Flow Productions," while Tony's is credited as "for Zee Records"). And while this is the first I'd heard of Tony P, a little Googling shows he's no stranger to the New York hip-hop scene, receiving recording and engineering credit on albums like Main Source's Breaking Atoms, Big Daddy Kane's Taste of Chocolate and Living Colour's Vivid. At any rate, it's an interesting little addition to the IU oeuvre.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Juice Crew 3rd Millenium

Of course, it's no "Symphony;" but 1999's "Thug Money" by Juice Crew 3rd Millenium ain't bad. The line-up here doesn't quite feature the All-Star line-up of your dreams either; but it's not a bunch of completely unrelated new jacks using the name, like say "The Unit" who Latifah was putting out around the same time. It features MC Shan (Juice Crew Allstar), Big Skoob (yeah, he counts as a Juice Crew Allstar), Grand Daddy IU - who also produced the track (he's almost a Juice Crew allstar... he just came a couple years too late), Oz-Born (who I believe is the Oz of IU's "Oz's Track," which he put out independently that same year) and D-Low (new jack who sings the hook).
"Thug Money" is the only song on this 12", with Dirty, Clean, "Super Clean," Instrumental and Acapella versions. The instrumental is a slightly understated but effective track for a thuggish posse cut. It won't blow you away, but it's pretty good; and every MC comes with a reasonably tight, hardcore verse ("Our projects stand alone; I represent the zone: Pickett Avenue, you get robbed on the payphone.").
It was pretty surprising to see the Juice Crew turn up as a collective on Universal Records(!) as late as 1999, and it's easy to dream about a full-length project that never was to be, reuniting all the Juice Crew members for a collective album to finally follow In Control vol 1. But this joint, while not bad, doesn't exactly scream "summer hit sure to lead to a major label contract." Indeed, this was actually due to be featured on (as can be clearly read on the label) a Mr. Magic sampler album (all originals? Or lots of prereleased material? We'll never know) called Mr. Magic's Greatest Flavors, an album which never wound up happening. All we have is this. It's no must-have if you're not a die-hard Juice Crew enthusiast, but if you're thinking you'd like to check this out based on the line-up, you won't be disappointed.