Big L- “Put it On”: R.I.P. Big L died on today’s date in 1999. This track is the first off his debut disc Lifestylez Ov Da Poor and Dangerous. Good stuff.
Raekwon- “Verbal Intercourse” (ft. Nas & Ghostface Killah): Classic. Check out Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.
Edan- “Syllable Practice”: From Beauty and the Beat. Some good samples on that album.
Clipse- “Comedy Central” (ft. Fabolous): Best Virginian duo I know of. Off their first album, Lord Willin’. Better without Re-Up Gang counterparts, btw.
Slum Village- “Tainted” (ft. Dwele): I don’t know too much about these guys, but they’re from Detroit and are associated with J Dilla often. A quick wikipedia check shows that he used to be their DJ/Producer, and now his younger brother is in the group. From Trinity (Past, Present and Future).
A Tribe Called Quest- “Check the Rhime”: From the acclaimed Low End Theory. Not the hugest ATCQ fan, but Q-Tip’s newest is pretty good.
Blackalicious- “Chemical Calisthenics”: Blazing Arrow. Got sick of playing “Paragraph President” every week. Great album.
Lupe Fiasco- “Pressure” (ft. Jay-Z): Not the biggest Lupe fan either (and I’m from Chicago too…), but I love me a good Jay-Z guest verse. He’s got to be the best guest rapper of all time, right? From Food & Liquor.
Murs- “Lookin’ Fly” (ft. will.i.am.): Off his new one, Murs For President. Haven’t gotten to listen to this whole album yet, but Murs is usually all right by me.
Talib Kweli- “Get By”: That’s right, I do play requests, so call in! From Quality.
Brother Ali- “Forest Whitiker”: Everyone’s favorite albino rapper (I think). Off Shadows on the Sun.
Kanye West- “School Spirit”: This song is actually edited on the album so that he can use the names of the Greek organizations in the song. Saves me some trouble! A College Dropout track.
The Roots- “Birthday Girl”: Fun little song about a girlfriend turning 18 (you know why 😉 [does girlfriend seem too strong a word?]). Off their most recent Rising Down. Any guesses on how long they stay on the Jimmy Fallon show?
Big Daddy Kane- “It’s a Big Daddy Thing”: From the album of the same title. Check out “Show & Prove” from Daddy’s Home, it’s got BDK, Jay-Z, and ODB trading bars with a few others. Oh and it’s from ’94 so it’s early Jay, and you know how much I love that :).
Jurassic 5- “Verbal Gunfight”: Another group I’ll admit that I know almost nothing about. They’ve put out a fair number of albums, I’ve just never listened to any of them. Off an EP we have here in the studio called W.O.E. Is Me.
Big L- “Deadly Combination” (ft. 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G.): The album version of this track is on The Big Picture, but I believe that it is missing the Biggie verse. How many dead rappers can you fit on a song, am I right?
Hu$tle Simmons- “Evacuate” (ft. Al Mighty): We just got this in the studio, and I have no idea what it is. From what the internet tells me, it’s a group made up of MC Dave Ghetto and an up-and-coming DJ Tha S Ence. The album is self-titled.
The Knux- “Bang! Bang!”: I’ve heard of these guys from some music mag’s (website?) buzz column. We just got their debut album Remind Me in 3 Days… in the studio. Based on this track they sound pretty decent.
Scarface- “One”: Used to be in the Geto Boys, this was a random single we’ve got in the hip-hop catalogue. I have no idea where it came from.
UGK- “Real Women” (ft. Talib Kweli & Raheem DeVaughn): Courtesy of MC Chris Barnes (R.I.P.). From the Underground Kingz album.
Nas- “Bridging the Gap” (ft. Olu Dara): This one is from the Cadillac Records soundtrack. Non-traditional rap song, but totally cool.
GZA- “Duel of the Iron Mic”: This is from Liquid Swords, an album I’m allegedly going to see him perform live in the near future. You should come too.
Canibus- “2000 B.C.”: Canibus is someone people love talking about as a great lyricist, but I don’t know enough about him to comment on that discussion. Scratch that, I’ve heard two songs now. One was good, one wasn’t so good. Jury’s still out. I think this is from the album called 2000 B.C.
AZ- “Quiet Money (Blood Money)” (ft. Halfamil & Animal): I’m not sure what the story behind this song is. The group might be called the Union, from a record called Organized Rhymes. It’s a cool song, and I’m a fan of AZ (check out his debut Doe or Die). Btw, he’s the other dude on Illmatic.
Ghostface Killah- “The Champ”: When I first got Fishscale I would listen to this song three or four times in a row. If you haven’t listened to that album yet you should.
Cam’ron- “Hey Ma” (ft. Juelz Santana, Freekey Zeekey & Kay Slay): Cam’ron bringing his crew in tow with a great little romp through a night out on the town. Spoiler alert: these boys know how to pick up women. Off Come Home with Me.
Ludacris- “What’s Your Fantasy”: I assure you I wasn’t having sex in the station during this two song set, but it sure felt like I was! Does anyone not know this song? From Back for the First Time.
Joell Ortiz- “125 Pt. 3 (Connections)” (ft. Ras Kass, Stimuli, Grafh, Gab Gacha): I like Joell Ortiz, and a lot of people don’t know much about him. His debut that this is off of, The Brick: Bodega Chronicles, is a good album. And I love a good posse track.
Big L- “Da Graveyard” (ft. Lord Finesse, Microphone Nut, Jay-Z, Party Arty, & Y.U.): Speaking of posse tracks… One last song for Big L on what is no longer the anniversary of his death. Oh well, he deserves it. Oh yeah, and some more early Jay-Z. You can figure out how I feel about that song. Btw, Party Arty is dead as well. Lots of death on tonight’s show, and that’s saying a lot for a hip-hop show.
I enjoyed myself, and I hope you non-existent listeners did too. Remember, every Sunday from 11pm-1am. 88.7, the Edge.
-john
The Hip-Hop Hour 