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Dead Presidents Day!
classic shit.
just to give you kids an idea of how classic this is.
this came out when NaS was doing his thing with Illmatic, new york rap was at its pinnacle. Jay emerges as the new star, and this rubbed NaS slightly the wrong way. They didnt do any songs together, but Jay samples NaS on this track. If you notice at the end of the video jay is sitting around playing cards with some friends, including long time partner Dame Dash..... and a young AZ. AZ is one of NaS crew, and was in his Firm team, an experimental album that somehow flopped despite production from Dr.Dre and a team that included NaS, AZ and Foxxy Brown. "Affirmative Action," a song from Nas' second album, It Was Written, featured Foxy Brown, AZ, and Cormega, each taking a verse, along with Nas; it became an album highlight as well as a much-talked-about song on the streets. For The Firm, Cormega was replaced by Nature, reportedly either because Stoute and/or Nas preferred Nature, or because Cormega would not sign a contract with Stoute. Following this replacement, Cormega recorded the inflammatory track "Fuck Nas and Nature" and let it circulate through the mix-tape market.
nas and jay recorded historic hip hop diss tracks, Nas recorded Ether after Jay did The Takeover, which was produced by a young Kanye West!
ironically in 2007, jay signed nas to def jam and they recorded a dead presidents remix.
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The firm - Firm Biz
the firm - phone tap (dr dre beat)
nas - ether live in central park 2007
making soul beats
5 Comments:
this was a good track, but i dont think this or The Firm represent classic NYC hip hop in it's "pinnacle" - I think you might want to go back least 5 years earlier for that... try EPMD, Pete and CL, Main Source, Lord Finesse or even Blackmoon...
The Firm was a crappy album. Illmatic was a classic, it was written was so-so, and the Firm if anything, marked the beginning of a long, dark, stock broker-wannabe period for Nas. In fact, NYC Hip Hop in the late 90's (as both of your examples are from) was a sad time for NYC hip-hop, complete with Mafia wannabes sporting Versace glasses and other female accessories. The "streets" of NYC were hardly talking about this, take it from someone who was there.. maybe you mean TRL and carson daily were talking?
you want classic 90's NYC? check these mixes:
http://konstantkontakt.blogspot.com/2007/07/90s-flashback-with-funkmaster-flex.html
anonymous, i hear that.
i was also 6 when those songs came out, so all my knowledge comes second hand. Ive never lived in nyc.. those funk flex mixes are good..
I didnt mean that the firm was in any way the pinnacle of hiphop.. but my crew rocked that album for a minute!
howd you find my post?
its all good. didn't mean to sound too harsh either. i was just very dissapointed by Nas from like 1995-2005?? (still kinda) i dunno.. man, and for real.. i'll take The Firm or any of that late 90's playa shit over 95% of mainstream Hip Hop nowadays.
just found you blog randomly man.. i think i was searching sometihng and came across your post..
peace.
Good post. The emergence of these emcees into the mainstream signified a move to a smoother version of hip-hop. It is like comparing Rambo to James Bond.
Also what was amazing about Illmatic is that it was written before he got a deal. So when he got a deal they just shopped for producers.
These are both two of my favorite emcees(giving the edge to Jay-z), but you can't mention this era without mentioning Biggie.
@Anonymous I would add to that list Big L, the whole Boot Camp Click, Gangstarr and i could go on forever.
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