I can’t stress enough how the impact of that big budget diss VIDEO — gkmc van n all — for an 8 minute song with three different beats…
Was immediately neutralized by a concept diss record over a 1 bar piano loop just sitting in Kdot's "Alchemist" folder.
Incredible.
@abc15
For anybody that hears one and can not possibly fathom the other, see if this helps. I was
#TeamYanny
and it blew my mind when I sped it up and heard Laurel! 🤯
DJ Premier Deep Cuts | Day 6
Bahamadia - "True Honey Buns"
A bop. Preem went slightly outside his usual bag to set the perfect vibe for Bahamadia’s effortless flow. 🌊
Rare Nas Gems | Day 5
“Deja Vu”
If there’s an unreleased cut from this era I could’ve seen being on Illmatic, it’s this one. If you’ve never heard it, you’ll surely recognize the iconic first verse, but honestly it’s masterful throughout. Third verse threaded below. 👇🏽
Sup y’all… gonna be doing 31 days of rare & obscure Nas gems for the month of May (just because 🤷🏽♂️), starting with this banger right here. Shouts to Large Pro on the production. 3rd verse is too fire so threading it below cuz I def ain’t paying Elon shit. 👇🏽
Day 1: “Star Wars”
Kanye sampling Backstreet is trash ... but he is not alone ...
name the POP sample (not popular song -- pop music) that turned into a great rap song that stood the test of time ..
I will wait
Rare Nas Gems | Day 3
“Life is Like a Dice Game”
Like “On The Real”, this was an unreleased mid-90’s cut that was remade years later, in this case in 2021 as a collab w/ Freddie Gibbs & Cordae. Thread below. 👇🏽
(Also, I’ll be threading all these and pinning to my profile. 📌)
Rare Nas Gems | Day 8 | The IWW Sessions
Part 1: “Take It In Blood Part 2”
There are several rarities that came out of these sessions, none more mysterious than this entirely different version of Take It In Blood. Shouts and RIP to Big Stretch. Thread Below. 👇🏽
DJ Premier Deep Cuts | Day 31
DJ Premier feat. Rakim, Nas, KRS-One, & Kanye West - "Classic"
Technically not a Nas song… lol
I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to end the series than this. Preemo chopping the sample and the 2 gawds trading bars. Hip Hop. 🎯🫡
Rare Nas Gems | Day 10 | The Ones
Part 1: “One on One”
Almost forgot about these. I always confused “One on One” and “One Plus One”. The former was actually released on the Street Fighter movie soundtrack, which is not available on streaming platforms. Thread Below. 👇🏽
DJ Premier Deep Cuts | Day 4
Fat Joe - "The Shit is Real (DJ Premier Remix)"
This joint always takes me back to a very particular time and place.
I love this era of Preemo production cuz you saw in real time how he was separating himself from everyone else.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 21
“Serious”
With AZ. These two have nothing but classic material together, including this lost banger from the Streets Disciple era. It actually ended up on an AZ Anthology project years later but it’s not on DSPs today. Produced by Salaam Remi.
Mos Def's response when asked if Drake's music is hip-hop:
"Drake is pop to me. In the sense like, if I was in Target in Houston, and I heard a Drake song... It feels like a lot of his music is compatible with shopping."
@ShaunKing
Ok y’all... I couldn’t stop obsessing over this, so I ripped the audio and played with it a bit. At first I thought it was a frequency thing, but it’s actually a speed/pitch issue. Here’s the audio as I go up and down in speed and pitch. Lmk what y’all hear.
The Track: Alchemist | Day 5
The Alchemist feat. Nas & Prodigy - "Tick Tock"
Couldn't get this joint out of my head today. Lotta classic Alchemist x Queens connections and I feel like this one doesn’t get enough flowers. As always, long live Prodigy. 🙏🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 30
“High”
One of my favorites from the unreleased catalog, but also the one I probably know the least about. He shouts Wild Gremlinz which was Nature’s crew… maybe it was supposed to be a collab? Idk… anyone with info (including producer) drop it below.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 9 | More Trackmasters
Part 1: “Sinful Living”
I know how some of y’all feel about Trackmasters, but their work with Nas gotta be celebrated. “Sinful Living” sees Nas spitting more eloquent bars on the “Street Dreams remix” beat. Thread below. 👇🏽
Jay was the third*.
The Alkoholics used it in '93.
And I think the issue here is not so much about this *particular* sample being reused (again), but moreso about certain artists going to the same "popular sample" well over and over and not having much else to offer creatively.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 23
“Good Morning”
From sometime b/w God’s Son & Street’s Disciple, I believe. It’s a personal fave cuz it sounds like a demo, but that laid back delivery feels perfect for what the song is. Plus that Isley Brothers sample always hits. (No production credit)
Rare Nas Gems | Day 13
“The Rise and Fall”
No thread today; this one deserves a spotlight. A number of songs cut from the original, tragically bootlegged version of I Am would find homes on future projects. How this one didn’t is mind-boggling. A perfect song. Verse 3 below.👇🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 31
“The Season”
Nas on a Dilla beat makes the cypher complete. ☯️
And that brings the series to a close. This was fun y’all. Shouts to all the new followers.🫡 Go follow the podcast too
@RapRoundtablePC
!!
Verse 2 below.👇🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 2 | “On The Real” (feat. Kamikazee & Cormega)
“Star Wars” was 1 of 2 bonus tracks on the 10th anniversary edition of Illmatic. The other was a solo remake of this, originally recorded circa '95/'96. Thread below for Cormega’s verse(s) and 2004 solo version.👇🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 6
“Nas Will Prevail”
I’ma go back before a go forward. Now this was legit pre-Illmatic, and the precursor to “It Ain’t Hard To Tell”, also produced by Large Pro. Verses 2 and 3 threaded below. 👇🏽
DJ Premier Deep Cuts | Day 8
O.C. - "My World"
Def gonna be getting into some more album cuts. This had a brief visual as the intro to the "Far From Yours" video so I spliced it in. O.C. is so underrated man, def deserves his flowers! 💐
Drake is def a pop star bro. 🤷🏽♂️ You don’t make Hotline Bling, One Dance, a whole “house” album, and follow every trend imaginable without having intentional pop aspirations. I’m sure he owns that, his fans need to too.
DJ Premier Deep Cuts | Day 7
Group Home - "Livin' Proof"
I mean… sheesh!
1) Those drums 😮💨 we just don’t get drums like this anymore.
2) I’ve listened to the record he sampled for this and the only conclusion I can come to is that Preemo’s an alien.
The Track: Alchemist | Day 15
Mobb Deep feat. Kool G Rap - "The Realest"
Going heavy Mobb for a few days before moving into Alchemist's more modern era. Series wouldn't feel complete without this classic, plus I been seeing a lot of loop slander and I'll be having none of that!
Rare Nas Gems | Day 22
“Stay Chisel”
Damn I skipped over this yesterday. A God’s Son era record produced by Large Pro that Nas ended up not using, so Pro used it for his own album 1st Class w/ 1 Nas verse and 1 of his own. This original here tho was all Nas. Verse 3 below. 👇🏽
DJ Premier Deep Cuts | Day 18
D.I.T.C. (Big L & Fat Joe) - "Da Enemy"
Back to back D.I.T.C. posts? Absolutely! This crew deserves all the flowers!
This joint was also on Big L's posthumous album 'The Big Picture', but it appeared here first.
The Track: Alchemist | Day 13
Nas - "No Idea's Original" (OG version)
Yes, I know this is a cover of Stillmatic. Specifically, an original Japanese pressing that contained 4 bonus songs. One of them was this, with same lyrics but different beat, also produced by Alchemist. 🧵👇🏽
The Track: Alchemist | Day 6
Nas - "My Way"
Gonna stay in Queens for a bit and go back to back Nas. So many directions I coulda gone for collabs between these two goats but this might lowkey be my favorite. 🐐🐐
At this point 4:44 gotta be the most overrated album of all time. I love No ID but outside of Story of OJ that was some of his most mid production ever.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 28
“Death Anniversary”
This one goes out to the homie
@AdrielGreen
. Nas on his “What If” shit way before the Marvel show. No known producer credit, if anyone knows drop it below.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 4
“Understanding”
Gonna stay in this era for a bit. “Dice Game” was actually the b-side of this white label, pressed for promo use but never officially released. Also, there’s a big misconception they were pre-Illmatic, but they were cut b/w Illmatic & IWW.
Lotta folks point to summer '97 as the start of the mainstream/underground rift (Wu-Tang vs Puff), but this day in '96 divided a lot of heads. What side did you fall on?
Nas Rare Gems | Day 27
“Film”
This was a joint he made with producer C-Sick after he won the Red Bull Big Tune national beat battle in 2008. Kid was just 17 at the time. Crazy. Verse 3 below.👇🏽
DJ Premier Deep Cuts | Day 23
Jadakiss feat. Sheek Louch & Styles P - "None Of Y'all Betta"
I’m the most peaceful person you’ll ever meet, but this shit makes me wanna punch a mfer in their face just for living. 😤😤😤
Rare Nas Gems | Day 7
“Just Another Day In The Projects” b/w “I’m A Villain”
Couple more demos b4 getting into the IWW / I Am era. “Projects” exhibits Nas’s storytelling ability early on. “Villian” would be released w/ Illmatic XX so you can easily stream that. Thread below.👇🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 17
“Amongst Kings”
Tryna move on from the I Am era but couldn’t forget about this joint. Probably shoulda thrown this up before “My Worst Enemy” but oh well 🤷🏽♂️. Can’t find production credit; if anyone knows drop a reply.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 26
“Esco Let’s Go”
Leading up to the album that would eventually be called 'Untitled', Nas & Green Lantern put out a mixtape led by this heat rock. Twitter, please don’t come for me for the cover, it’s “what it is!” (See what I did there?) Verse 3 below.👇🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 29 | Memorial Day Edition
“Summer Cookout”
Technically this was supposed to be a Nature joint, but it’s still part of the unreleased Nas chronicles. No producer info here either so if you know lmk. Enjoy ya cookouts or whatever y’all getting/got into today!
Rare Nas Gems | Day 12 | Queens Connections
Part 1: “Queenstyle” w/ Noreaga
Some unreleased feature heat today. This ended up being reworked into Nature’s “Triple Threat” but I always loved the rawness of the original. Plus an extra Nas verse.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 20
“Tales From The Hood”
This one has always felt like a mystery to me. Not really sure what it was meant for. If anyone has info on it, let me know. Verse 3 below.👇🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 15
“Sometimes I Wonder”
Featuring Nature. A shame they didn’t work together more beyond this era cuz they had great chemistry on records together. Third verse below.👇🏽
Rare Nas Gems | Day 24
“Where Y’all At”
Entering now the Hip Hop Is Dead / Def Jam era. This is actually available on DSPs, but I feel like most don’t realize it. Def Jam put out a compilation of their artists’ cut songs, & that’s where you’ll find this banger. Verse 3 below.👇🏽
@ESPNFrankie
On Seinfeld, when Jerry and Elaine ended up back together in season 2, reportedly because the showrunners thought the show would be cancelled and it would be their last episode. It went on for 7 more seasons with them as just friends and this plot line was never mentioned again.
Rare Nas Gems | Day 11 | The Firm Sessions
Part 1: “La Familia”
Kinda interrupted the chronology yesterday but I needed time to grab all these. There was a LOT of heat left off the Firm album, so I’m dumping it all here, starting with my favorite one (produced by Trackmasters).