You know we’re big on Isaac Hayes’ work around here, now thanks to sprint you can let Isaac help you do your work on v-day. Just go to this site, type in a message for your girlfriend, parole office, governor, whoever and Isaac Hayes will serenade that message to them.

(Image: Black Fine Art Show)

What happened to Just Blaze’s blog aka the best blog from any hip hop artist? I know he stopped writing towards the end of last year but now it just shows his polo stash as a header & the default wordpress setup. I hope the archives still exist somewhere (archive.org lists Aug 2007 as the last archived date), I know I had to catch up on a few entries. So does any ML tipster know what happened or if it’s coming back?

From left to right: Quasimoto-”The Unseen”, Von Pea-”Grand Vonye”, Black Milk & Bishop Lamont’s “Caltroit”. I bought ‘em off the online FatBeats shop.

The official release of “Caltroit” is a little disappointing, package wise. I covered it here and was pumped for a proper booklet and everything. But nope, just a single double sided sheet with the track listing and cover. They took Bishop’s name off the CD because of some kind of label issue, so technically it’s a Black Milk project, at least in name.

Have any of you listened to these albums? I know Hangover_monkey is a Lord Quas fan…

So a fake doctor, a lawyer and a baseball pitcher walk into a bar…

So I’ve been trying to just get a look at the top 10 plays of the day or some NFL Live in my free time today, but this Roger Clemens/Brian McNamee congressional hearing is eating up all of that. Instead I’m listening to all sorts of fun discussions about fake diplomas, Clemens butt bleeding (NH!!), a nanny attending a Jose Conseco’s party, with committee members cracking jokes/zinging in between. They could’ve ended it about after about 5 minutes of talking and easily solved the matter. Since one of them is CLEARLY lying, get a lie detector on both guys and we can all resume our regularly scheduled programming. Although, it still is more entertaining than this.

(Image: NYTimes)

Podcast

For this installment we played some of our favorite songs by deceased MCs. We had a lot of fun with this show. The depressing part is that we had so many songs by dead rappers we had to finish some songs early so we could fit them all in the show.

Playlist:
Big L (Feat. Fat Joe)- The Enemy
Charizma- Ice Cream Truck
Big Punisher (Feat. M.O.P.)- New York Giants
Notorious B.I.G.- Gimme The Loot
Eazy-E- Eazy-Er Said Than Done
Ol’ Dirty Bastard- I Want Pussy
Proof (Feat. MC Breed)- Ali
Mac Dre- Thizzle Mountain
J Dilla- Reckless Driving
2Pac- Holler If Ya Hear Me
Soulja Slim (Feat. Snoop Dogg)- At The Same Time
Cam’ron- Kill My Dog
Stack Bundles- Biddin’ War
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth- They Reminisce Over You

More video interview, transcripts are endanger! P talks about his case and how the police tried to get him to set up 50.

Def one of the better Rick Ross interviews. Dude owns 2000 pairs of sunglasses? Truth be told I felt a little awkward watching Rawwssss rub & talk about his tattoos.

Apologies for the week off, I’m back on course with a sureshot remix of one of my favourite songs. Queens-based duo Organized Konfusion consisted of rappers Prince Po & Pharaohe Monch. The song I’m covering today is “Stress”, off their classic sophomore effort, Stress : The Extinction Agenda. “Stress” was released as a single, in both 12” and “cassingle” formats. Each had a slightly different track listing but both had the original version of “Stress”, produced by Buckwild, and a remix done by Large Professor.

The album version of “Stress” features pounding, reverb soaked drum hits and an ill Charlie Mingus sample (from “Chazz Fingers” off Mingus Revisited). “Stress” begins with only a downbeat bassline (reminiscent of Buckwild’s work on OK affiliate O.C.’s “Time’s Up”) and gradually adds the other elements. High pitched keys are played just before the horns come in.

The song is interrupted in the middle by a dialogue interlude where Monch & Prince Po try to get a cab to Queens but the guy drives off. The single version omits the skit in the middle but as far as I can tell is identical otherwise.

The video for the album version is below and mostly consists of OK buggin’ out in the snow, seen through a fish eye lens. I don’t need to tell you how great it is.

As good as the original, this writeup is about the remix. The Extra P blessed remix features new verses from both Pharaohe & Po, along with a verse from the “live guy with glasses” himself. I’ll spare you detailed comparison of the two versions’ verses (compare original VS remix), but Large Pro’s verse is dope and I want to share it.

Now nothing ain’t deeper than having to throw a nigga in the sleeper
Don’t stress, and take that shit from Large Profess’
Cause I be on the train trying to maintain
Getting lower than the whole while the record man gain
And it make me want to sting somebody, with the shottie
Cause I can’t relate to living less than great
So I while I make a fat beat to eat
Some of my mans from John Ball high school are sleeping in the street
That stress shit is ill, if you let it, it will
Having your ass on the staircase smoking a scrill
Never that for me, nigga my name’s Extra P
I can’t afford to be stressed the fuck out in ‘93
Or ‘94, cause everybody knows my solution
to being stressed is looking at the front door

The remix replaces the paranoid, claustrophobic feel of the OG with a laidback, summery vibe. A warm jazz guitar loop and Extra P’s trademarked sleigh bells reverberate throughout the track. A smooth sax line comes in on the chorus. It sounds like it could be a Pete Rock remix from around the same period. The remix flips the chorus of “Crush, kill, destroy, stress” into a kind of cathartic mantra. A fantastic remix but it would sadly be one of the last few Large Professor remixes for a while, besides some great scattered work over ‘95-96, on a Blue Note remix project and his dual remixes of Common’s “Resurrection”.

Organized Konfusion - Stress (Album Version)

Organized Konfusion - Stress (Large Professor Remix)

Let me introduce one of the top 5 daddies in hip hop, Trick Daddy.

This is so fucking funny. Damnit Mayer, you’re making it hard for me to hate you right now.

It’s been a while since when we heard the smash song, Stonger, for the first time, and it’s about time Kanye hooked up with Daft Punk for a live rendition.

Foo Fighters & John Paul Jones with the strings section was pretty damn good too:

and y’all can breathe a sigh of relief Soulja didn’t win anything, but Herbie (rightfully) surprised the world!