Nas & The Firm -1996-1997- DJ Clue Vs. The Firm collection (homemade compilation)

• 1996-1998 : freestyles, leftover songs recorded during the Firm's The Album sessions. Most of these tracks here have been published in DJ Clue various mixtapes.

Credit : Marc Baptiste

### This homemade compilation follows the beginning of the DJ Clue's Freestyles & Exclusives mixtape, completed by other tracks from DJ Clue mixtapes and leftover tracks from The Firm's album, more or less in a chronological order. ###

Nas & The Firm -1996-1997- DJ Clue Vs. The Firm (Tape Kingz)

1. The Foulness pt. 1 & 2 (1995)
2. Freestyle (by Foxy Brown) (1996)
3. Freestyle (by Nature) (1996)
4. Escobar Season Begins (Hot 97 Freestyle) (1996)
5. Welcome To The Firm feat. Femme Fatale, Noreaga, Nature & Mary J Blige (1996)
6. 6. 456 Freestyle (The Foulness pt. 3) feat. Nature (1996)
7. Boss of Bosses (Firm Freestyle) feat. Foxy Brown (1996)
8. Desperados (Original) feat. Foxy Brown, Canibus, Nature & Az (1996)
9. Forever Fresh (The Foulness pt. 4) feat. Nature (1996)
10. Everyday Thing feat. Nature & Dr. Dre (1996) *
    
11. La Familia (Version 2) feat. Foxy Brown, Nature & Az (1996)
    
12. Take It In Blood pt. 2 feat. Nature (1996)
13. The Case (by Foxy Brown) (1997)
14. Escobar '97 (Clue Mix) (MIB OST) (1997)
15. The Welcoming feat. Nature & AZ (1997)
16. Live Freestyle On Angie Martinez Hot 97 (1997)
17. T.O.N.Y. Freestyle (1997)
18. Time feat. AZ & Nature (1997)
19. Firm Biz (World's Famous Remix) feat. Half-A-Mill, Nature, Az & Foxy Brown
20. Sosa Vs The State feat. Az & Nature (1997)
21. Love Is All We Need (Alternate Verse) feat. Mary J Blige (1997)
22. Head Over Heels feat. Allure (1996)
23. Head Over Heels (Clue's Version Remix) (by Az) feat. Tone & Allure (1997)
24. Queen's Finest (1998)
25. Sprite Commercial feat. Az (1998)

* It'd be possible to include the Drauma version but the fact Dre raps the exact same verse indicates it was a reference track for him. The question would be to know when was recorded the Drauma version and the Dre one...

Details :

1. Starting with Biz Markie's "Make Music With Your Mouth" beat. DJ Clue - Spring pt. 2 The Payback (1996)
2. DJ Clue - Spring pt. 2 The Payback (1996) & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
3. DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
4. Starting with Big Daddy Kane's "Young, Gifted & Black". DJ Clue - Summatyme Shootout Pt.1 (1995)
   
5. DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
6. DJ Clue The 456 Goin 4 Broke (1996) 
7. DJ Clue Platinum Plus (1997)
8. DJ Clue Platinum Plus (1997)
   
9. Fall pt. 1 (1996) & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
10. Unreleased. Leftover from The Firm's album. Included in unofficial Phone Tap (?)
    
11. DJ Clue Holiday Hold Up (1996)
12. DJ Clue The 456 Goin 4 Broke (1996)
    
13. DJ Clue Show Me The Money (1997)
    
14. DJ Clue Manatti pt. 2, The Rematch (1997) 
15. DJ Clue R&B pt. 2 Just Cruisin Again (1997) & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
16. Radio Hot 97 (1997)
17. DJ Clue & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
18. Unreleased. Leftover from The Firm's album.
19. Phone Tap (Remix) (1997)
20. Unreleased. Leftover from The Firm's album.
21. DJ Clue Show Me The Money (1997)
22. DJ Clue Holiday Hold Up (1996) 
23. DJ Clue & Allure's Head over Heels (Remix) Promo (1997) 
24. DJ Clue The Professional (1998)
25. Commercial (1997)
    

Parallel between The Firm and Tha Outlawz

Where does come the idea of a supergroup ? It is said Nas, his manager Steve Stoute, the production team Trackmasters (Poke & Tone, Frank Nitty, Gowdy & Richbourg) and Dr. Dre who was apparently part of the project from the beginning. The name of the group is of course inspired by the movie of the same name with Tom Cruise (1993). Nothing to do with 2Pac in the formation of a group. Of course the mafioso idea is more than common in the Hip-Hop world...

But, from another point of view, when Nasty Nas turned into Nas Escobar (a new nickname like 2Pac becoming Makaveli) and gathered around him Az, Cormega and Foxy Brown for "Affirmative Action", and then for a whole mafioso concept with nicknames (mainly Escobar and Sosa), we can't help  but think to a more or less important influence of 2Pac and his terrorist group Outlaw Immortalz he presented in January of 96 in "When We Ride" in All Eyez On Me (Mussolini, Kadafi, Napoleon, Hussein...). If you add the fact that Dr. Dre produced some tracks and directed the album's sound...

Sam Sneed, Nas & Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre starting to work with Nas

This picture could presumably from summer 95 when Nas came to L.A. to record "Don't Stop (Original)" for the second album of Tha Dogg Pound... Sam Sneed on the picture tends to give this idea. Do they have had this idea of a project together at that time ? The reverse way Ice Cube worked with East Coast Public enemy's Bomb Squad producing team in 1990 for Amerikkka's Most Wanted and the exact same way Kool G Rap had his album Live & Let Die almost entirely produced by Sir Jinx, except three tracks by... the Trackmasters !  

Dr. Dre was clearly not at his ease in this East/West absurd war, alongside the provocative Suge Knight (Let's think to the 95 Music Awards), even if when he went off the N.W.A. he was kind of dissing Eazy-E. It was a personal thing. With Snoop Dogg and the Dogg Pound, he still was the leader of Death Row. Maybe something already was going wrong with the cancelling of Dre's projects Chronic II or Dre/Cube aborted project. But the arrival of 2Pac achieved to perturb everything. 2Pac was a bulky figure, very demanding, very nervous and susceptible at that time... and Suge Knight made him the new top leading figure of the label.

When Dr. Dre left Death Row in March 96, he quickly founded his label Aftermath, and worked at his compilation album Dre Dre presents : The Aftermath, with the first track being the supergroup Group Therapy one hit song "East Coast/West Coast Killas". A kind of reconciliation or "therapy" with Dre's ex-partner RBX from his first album Chronic, and reconciliation between East and West coasts with also Cypress Hill for the West, and for the East KRS-One and... Nas !

After this release in September 96 (the time of the death of 2Pac, the release of Makaveli's album), it seems Dre directly went on working for Nas' supergroup project The Firm.

Dr. Dre & Az in the studio

Az aka Sosa the first lieutenant, what about Cormega ?

Az released his first solo album in 95, Do Or Die, but in people's mind, he stays the perfect counterpoint to Nas in "Life's A Bitch", like Big Syke was 2Pac's one (and Stretch before him). It is not the same harmony, but their different voices sound perfectly well together, bring a very welcome balance.

Was Az with 2Pac in 95 ? Could they have recorded "Everyday Thing" (with Drama from the Sam Sneed's Street Scholars reference for Dre) in 95 ? That could be... That could explain why they didn't release the song in the album.

There were three other major omissions : "Sosa Vs. The State", "La Familia" and the wonderful "Time". The Dre remix of "Firm Biz" with Mary J Blige could have added a lot too...

But the worst thing is for sure the ejection of Cormega... It is said it occurred because of a debt he had to Steve Stout due his prison time. He recorded with the group in 1996, of course for "Affirmative Action" but also "The Familia" and "Affirmative Action Remix (The Symphony Freestyle)". So maybe he was dropped around the time Dre started to work with the group in the end of 96... In fact, he was the perfect gifted MC to give to the group a thicker identity... Like Stretch was for 2Pac, and then Snoop, Kurupt or Hussein could have played that kind of role for 2Pac.

The dispute between Mega and Nas went over the time and is as important for both than 2Pac with his ex-friends B.I.G. and Stretch. If the friendship had not been destroyed, for sure 2Pac's carreer would have been very different... It is also said Mega and Nas had an artistic dispute, could Mega have changed something to the album ? For sure, his refuses of any commercial concessions are clearer than Nas ones.

Foxy Brown & Kurupt

Very early-stage for her first appearance and first album (17-18), more than 2Pac (19-20) and Nas (18-21). The same way 2Pac always wanted to work with female rappers and included Storm his Outlawz in late 95, Nas added to his mafioso group a female rapper.

Somewhere around the recordings of his album Ill Na Na in 1996, Foxy met Kurupt and they started to date each other, maybe - the story would be beautiful - when Kurupt was back in Philadelphia in summer 96 and was recording his Philly sessions far away from the Death Row tensions... At the peak time of this nonsense East-West war fueled by Suge Knight, Puff Daddy, 2Pac's paranoia, East Coast rappers lack of humor (regarding "New York New York" funny video, not offensive)... Kurupt and Daz themselves sent shots (cf. Thug Pound) but their first intentions in 95 was to have a second album with some East/West connections with "Don't Stop Original" featuring Nas and "Got My Mind Made Up Original" featuring Lady of Rage & Redman, Method Man & Inspectah Deck... (cf. Dogg Shit to Westcoast Aftershock).

Circa 1998, Foxy recorded the freestyle "Nigga Whut" with Kurupt and "Got To Get It" with Dogg Pound, maybe when Kurupt started to record his double album Kuruption! in 1997. Freed from Death Row, Kurupt like Dr. Dre reconciled East and West.

After the fail of the Firm's album, Nas went his way and Foxy felt betrayed.

For sure DJ Clue owes a lot in his first mixtapes 1995-1997 to these Firm freestyles and early tracks, with of course people around them : Mobb Deep, Capone-N-Noreaga, Mary J Blige, Puff Daddy's team.