- Recorded circa 1994-1995.
- Source : unofficial bootleg album.
Tracklist - Discogs (alternate version) - Listen
- Intro feat. Dr. Dre & 2Pac (speaking) *
- Like Sneed (Blueberries) feat. Snoop Dogg
- Goin' Hollywood (Original)
- Drug Related (Original)
- Ghetto Hero feat. Nanci Fletcher
- New World Order (Original) (One Verse) feat. Sharief - uncompleted
- Lady Heroin (Original) feat. J-Flexx
- In Da Zone feat. J-Flexx & Drauma
- It's So Hot feat. Drauma (as reference for Dr. Dre) - uncompleted
- Street Scholars feat. Drauma
- Trump Tight
- Guilty as Sin feat. Sharief, Drauma & Kurupt
- Bone Breaker feat. J-Flexx & Sharief
- The Heist feat. Sharief & Drauma
- Dear God (Confessions Original) feat. Lady of Rage - uncompleted
- Lyrical Assasins feat. J-Flexx - snippet
Bonus Tracks :
17. Natural Born Killaz (Original) feat. Dr. Dre & Ice Cube
* We don't know if the "Intro" could be a real thing or if it was made way later in order to sell bootlegs of that unfinished album...
Another hidden gem from Death Row vault...
This album was like a kind of side project directed by Dr. Dre, the same way Snoop Dogg promoted his protégés the LBC Crew - with much more success even if they also couldn't release their first album on Death Row (Haven't You Heard ?) before WideAwake got the rights.
If some tracks are uncompleted, we can guess that it would have had many Death Row superstars featured : Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Lady of Rage, Dr. Dre... and maybe it could have a 2Pac's featuring, who knows, as a gift back for the song "Outlaw Immortalz" he produced for him and his group... Otherwise we could imagine East Coast artists (Kool G Rap, Prodigy and Big Shig (?) appear in the "Lady Heroin" video, but it could also be K-Solo who recorded with the label circa 1995...
The album is uncompleted and maybe even
unfinished because some tracks given ("Like Sneed") or reused ("The
Heist") would not have been included in it. Moreover, the production was
still lacking of a final mixdown, what was supposed to be the Dr. Dre's
magic touch. From this state we have, it sounds not extraordinary, but
when you think to the explosive result of the Sam Sneed/Dr. Dre
association on "Keeps their Heads Ringin", "Natural Born Killaz" and "U
Better Recognize", you can't help to think it could have been a very
good album. Even if we can admit that the Sam Sneed's style is kind of
repetitive, as well in his lyrical style as in his production...
Anyway the album was condemned when Dr. Dre decided to leave the label...
Sam Sneed (b. 1968, 3 years younger than Dre, 3 years older than 2Pac) is from Pittsburgh and started to produce material for K-Solo before Hit Squad split (cf. I Can't Hold It Back). After that, he was introduced to Dr. Dre and began to work under his wing in his producing team alongside J-Flexx, Mel-Man, Bud'Da... His first work was upon Snoop's Doggystyle in 1993 : he claimed to have worked on interludes and upon "G'z Up & Hoez Down" (but not litterally producing even if his well known phrase "My name is Sam Sneed, you better recognize" appears in "Checkin (skit)"). Then his "The Heist" beat was re-used and improved by Dr. Dre for the superhit "Natural Born Killaz" with Ice Cube finally replacing him. But in exchange, also for Murder Was The Case Soundtrack, Dr. Dre pushed his solo song "U Better Recognize" with his famous title gimmick. The next year, he co-produced the Dr. Dre superhit "Keep Their Heads Ringin" for Friday soundtrack.
After that, he started to record his album with his posse the Street Scholars : Sharief (Killa Ben), Drauma (Stocks McGuire), alongside the other Dr. Dre collaborators team J-Flexx, Mel-Man and Bud'Da.
When Dr. Dre left Death Row to found his label and recorded his compilation Dr. Dre Presents... The Aftermath, he took all the team with him with the exception of Sam Sneed and J-Flexx who still had a contract with Death Row... (Mel-Man had the song "Shitting on top of the world", Sharief the song "L.A.W.", Drauma co-produced "East Coast / West Coast Killers" and Bud'Da produced or co-produced 6 tracks)... What is less known is that J-Flexx very probably wrote the lyrics of "Been There Done That" (he recorded a version of the song dissing Dr. Dre mainly to have let him hang with Death Row whereas he said him he would solved the contract before leaving...).
Sam Sneed only produced one song for 2Pac right after he arrived in Death Row : "Outlaw Immortalz" (the 26th of October) for the shelved album Outlaw Immortalz : Thug Live Volume 2. The song appears in the first tracklist of the album but not in the second one... maybe the beef between 2Pac and Dr. Dre already made him drop the song, but more likely 2Pac decided to give the song to Thug Pound, the Sam Sneed's beat maybe more accurate to the Dogg Pound's vibe. Gonzoe claimed to have recorded a verse for that song, maybe to replace Big Syke after he left Death Row circa May or August of 96 for the Outlawz album (his name appears in Ghetto Starz planned guests).
"Like Sneed (Bluberries)" beat was apparently sold to Snoop Dogg & LBC Crew album (Haven't You Heard ?) before being transferred to Tha Doggfather. It didn't bother Death Row people to use Sam Sneed's beat after having beaten him up (so 2Pad wouldn't have dropped the song for that neither) and probably without never giving him money for it... Another funny thing about it is that 2Pac and Snoop recorded a St. Ides Commercial with Snoop referring to this track, maybe not a long time before 2Pac beat up Sneed...
Could be in mid 95 when Nas came to record "Don't Stop" for Dogg Pound
when East Coast was not the enemy...
The Sam Sneed's beat up...
The 21st of February 1996, after Snoop Dogg's acquitting, Sam Sneed showed the Death Row team the video he made with J-Flexx for "Lady Heroin", the first single of his upcoming first album Street Scholars - probably more or less in the state of this bootleg album. In front of everybody, Dogg Pound, Suge and his Blood circle, many other people from the label, 2Pac started to beat up Sam Sneed (he notably punched him in the eye), what led maybe Outlawz and more likely Sixx 8 of 6 Feet Deep to participate (he gave him a kick in the butt, from behind). After that, they forced Sam Sneed with his black eye and other marks with them to go to Snoop's trial (?) and to Snoop's acquittal party (the 21st of Feb.)...
After they watched the video, Suge turns himself to some
of his peeps : "were you in the movie ? and you ? No ? Sam, who paid for
the movie ? So why are there only East Coast niggaz and no
Death Row niggaz in that movie ?" (according the Darryl
Harper interview). The video had appearances by East Coast artists like Prodigy
(maybe not yet a problem for 2Pac at that time, but Napoleon recorded
lines against Mobb Deep in "First 2 Bomb" the 16th of Jan., and they
could have already answered to "New York, New York"), Big Shug (?) or
Kool G Rap (not a problem in itself, 2Pac always wanted to record with
him), and moreover was not paying any kind of reverence to Death Row or West
Coast... Adding the fact that Sam Sneed did a cameo in Raekwon's "Ice
Cream" video (released as a single in Sept. 95, the 25th - video made
probably a little time after that). So they would have been angry for Sam Sneed not chosing his side...
In fact, Dogg Pound
people were around the video set and Sam Sneed purposed to Death Row people to
come but no one did (according to J-Flexx)... Another explanation is that 2Pac and
Suge Knight already had heavy issues with Dr. Dre, and that Sam Sneed
being his closer protégé, it was a way to reach him, to threat him...
2Pac was disappointed by Dr. Dre for him refusing to produce more for
him (when everybody was supposed to work for the forthcoming project of
the label), even pretending to have produced "Got My Mind Made Up" when
it was a Daz track, maybe also starting to understand about the old
jealousy of Dr. Dre about his friendship with his then girlfriend
Natasha Walker (who disappeared from the label at that time)... Suge
Knight probably kind of guessing Dr. Dre was thinking about leaving the
label...
Sam notably said in a late interview that 2Pac and Suge reproached him to have asked money to produce a track for Snoop (probably "Blueberry" from the LBC Crew original album, recorded in second half of 95, finally released on Doggfather). People also said that Sam Sneed was kind of feeling himself, acting like the big man when Dr. Dre was not there... Daz baby mama also claimed they asked Sam Sneed to confirm Dr. Dre was gay - and maybe him being his boy - what could also be related to the fact that Dr. Dre didn't show at the Snoop's trial, what 2Pac denounced (so as being a coward more than the fact of being gay what was maybe not a problem in itself).
That event could have marked a real change in the musical collaboration, a big disease, with Dr. Dre of course ! but maybe also with the rest of the Death Row team, indirectly with Snoop and the Dogg Pound who were somewhere still friends with their mentor Dr. Dre...
After that, Sam Sneed escaped from Death Row but, still linked to the label by his contract, he couldn't release many things and concentrated on a brain tumor he had to heal...Then he was mainly active as a producer.
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