- 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.
Nas & The Firm -1996-1997- DJ Clue Vs. The Firm (Tape Kingz)
- Escobar Season Begins (Hot 97 Freestyle) (1996)
- Freestyle (by Foxy Brown) (1996)
- Freestyle (by Nature) (1996)
- The Foulness pt. 1 & 2 (1995)
- Welcome To The Firm feat. Femme Fatale, Noreaga, Nature & Mary J Blige (1996)
- The Foulness pt. 3 (6. 456 Freestyle) feat. Nature (1996)
- Boss of Bosses (Firm Freestyle) feat. Foxy Brown (1996)
- Desperados (Original) feat. Foxy Brown, Canibus, Nature & Az (1996)
- The Foulness pt. 4 (Forever Fresh Freestyle) feat. Nature (1996)
- Everyday Thing feat. Nature & Dr. Dre (1995-1996) *
- La Familia (Version 2) feat. Foxy Brown, Nature & Az (1996)
- Take It In Blood pt. 2 feat. Nature (1996)
- The Case (by Foxy Brown) (1997)
- Escobar '97 (Clue Mix) (MIB OST) (1997)
- The Welcoming feat. Nature & AZ (1997)
- Live Freestyle On Angie Martinez Hot 97 (1997)
- T.O.N.Y. Freestyle (1997)
- Time feat. AZ & Nature (1997)
- Firm Biz (World's Famous Remix) feat. Half-A-Mill, Nature, Az & Foxy Brown
- Sosa Vs The State feat. Az & Nature (1997)
- Love Is All We Need (Alternate Verse) feat. Mary J Blige (1997)
- Head Over Heels feat. Allure (1996)
- Head Over Heels (Clue's Version Remix) (by Az) feat. Tone & Allure (1997)
- Blood Money part 2 feat. Noreaga & Nature (1997)
- Real Niggas feat. SE (1996)
* 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 the Drauma version was recorded, and when Dre one...
Bold : contain 2Pac diss.
Details :
- Starting with Biz Markie's "Make Music With Your Mouth" beat. DJ Clue - Spring pt. 2 The Payback (1996)
- DJ Clue - Spring pt. 2 The Payback (1996) & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
- DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
- Starting with Big Daddy Kane's "Young, Gifted & Black". DJ Clue - Summatyme Shootout Pt.1 (1995)
- DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
- DJ Clue The 456 Goin 4 Broke (1996)
- DJ Clue Platinum Plus (1997)
- DJ Clue Platinum Plus (1997)
- Fall pt. 1 (1996) & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
- Unreleased. Leftover from The Firm's album. Included in unofficial Phone Tap (?)
- DJ Clue Holiday Hold Up (1996)
- DJ Clue The 456 Goin 4 Broke (1996)
- DJ Clue Show Me The Money (1997)
- DJ Clue Manatti pt. 2, The Rematch (1997)
- DJ Clue R&B pt. 2 Just Cruisin Again (1997) & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
- Radio Hot 97 (1997)
- DJ Clue & DJ Clue Freestyles & Exclusives (1997)
- Unreleased. Leftover from The Firm's album.
- Phone Tap (Remix) (1997)
- Unreleased. Leftover from The Firm's album.
- DJ Clue Show Me The Money (1997)
- DJ Clue Holiday Hold Up (1996)
- DJ Clue & Allure's Head over Heels (Remix) Promo (1997)
- Noreaga & Rufus Blaq Blood Money / Outta Sight (1997)
- SE single ? (1996). A song recently leaked from an unknown group from the Queens with a Nas verse dissing 2Pac. So recorded in the summer of 96, like "Welcome To The Firm".
A parallel between The Firm and Tha Outlawz
Where does come the idea of a supergroup ? It is said from 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 famous movie of the same name by Sidney Pollack with Tom Cruise (The Firm, 1993).
Nothing to do with 2Pac in the formation of a supergroup. And of course the mafioso theme 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 some nicknames (Escobar and Sosa, Foxy already has), we can't help but think to a more or less important influence of 2Pac and his terrorist group Outlaw Immortalz. 2Pac presented them 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 for both albums, and that they are released on a label he founded, and over his supervision...
What's the difference ? Outlawz is a group of young rappers, not famous (Mopreme and Big Syke neither). The topic of the terrorism, the most hated international figures - maybe with the exception of Napoleon who was not an enemy of the U.S.A. - is only a provocation against the white American ordinary way of thinking. If Escobar or Sosa could be one of them, the general topic of the Firm is about mafia business, illegal traffic. Less about political and ideological provocation and confrontation.
Dr. Dre starting to work with Nas
This picture could presumably be from summer 95 when Nas came to L.A. to record "Don't Stop (Original)" for the second album of Tha Dogg Pound (cf. Dogg Shit / West Coast Aftershock)... Sam Sneed on the picture tends to give think that. 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 speech), 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 his projects Chronic II or
Dre/Cube thing. But the arrival of 2Pac probably achieved to perturb
everything in the label. 2Pac was a bulky figure, very demanding, very nervous and
susceptible at that time... Everything was turning around him. Suge Knight made him the new top leading
figure of the label. Were "California Love" and "Cant' C Me" given to him because it was imposed by Suge ?
When Dr. Dre left Death Row in March 96, he rapidly founded his own label Aftermath - to not depend of anybody. He started to work at his compilation album Dre Dre presents : The Aftermath, in which the first track and first single was the supergroup Group Therapy one hit song "East Coast/West Coast Killas" produced by Dr. Dre. So his first act was a kind of reconciliation or "therapy" with Dre's ex-partner RBX from his first album Chronic, and above that a reconciliation between East and West coasts with also Cypress Hill for the West, and for the East KRS-One and... Nas !
"While childish MCs battle over coastal fronts", said RBX. It clearly sounds like a critic to 2Pac who started his "Hit Em Up" (released in June 4) by "Westside, Bad Boys killa, you know who's the realest." But both sides were reduced to the same critic : to aliment a stupid rivalry to make media exposure, instead od fompeting with their skills. This single was released the 13th of August 96, one month before 2Pac's death... In fact, in his lunatic mind, 2Pac didn't want this coastal war, that's why he launched the One Nation project in June. But the contradiction was obvious in his words and his emphasizing lyrics were perfectly used by Suge Knight to draw the maximum exposure...
The 1st of September, Dr. Dre released his own single "Been There, Done That". Which was an original beat made by Bud'da, and lyrics written by J-Flexx from the Sam Sneed's Street Scholars. So the song was presumably written before Dre's departure from Death Row... like "Everyday Thing" with Drauma from the Street Scholars reference for Dr. Dre ?
Az aka Sosa the first lieutenant, but what about Cormega ?
Az released his first solo album in 95, Do Or Die, a very good album, 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 tone of voices sound perfectly well together, a very welcome balance.
Was Az with Nas in 95 ? Could they have recorded "Everyday Thing" in 95 ? That could be... But why do they left over this beautiful song ? There are three other major omissions : "Sosa Vs. The State", "La Familia" and the wonderful "Time". The alternate version of Desperados with Nas and Foxy Brown, and the Dr. Dre remix of "Firm Biz" with Mary J Blige could have also 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 to his prison time (and as usual due to a disagreement at the signature about who receives what...). He was recording with Nas in late 95 and in 96 ("On The Real", "40th Side of Things"), and then with the group in 1996, of course "Affirmative Action" but also "The Familia" and "Affirmative Action Remix (The Symphony Freestyle)". In the 8' "Funk Flex Freestyle" with Nas (starting by his second "Message" verse), he presents the group and claims : "Firm Biz". So he was at this time a real member of the group.
Cormega was probably dropped around the summer 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 Kurupt or Hussein who can beat 2Pac in strict terms of MCing, and so pushed him to do better. Nas was the leader, but the rest of the group was too far from him.
The dispute between Mega and Nas went over the time and is as important for both than 2Pac with his ex-friend Stretch. If the friendship had not been destroyed, for sure 2Pac and Nas careers would have been different... It is also said Mega and Nas had an artistic
dispute, could Mega have changed something to the album ? For sure, Cormega never dealt with commercial concessions. It would have kept The Firm's album in a better orientation.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment