World Renown - "The Album" [Promo LP]

IF YOU'RE INTO WORLD RENOWN'S UNRELEASED '95 ALBUM YOU MIGHT KNOW THAT THERE WERE AT LEAST TWO PROMO VERSIONS WITH DIFFERENT SONG ON THEM, PLUS TRACKS FROM SINGLES THAT WASN'T ON EITHER, ETC. I MADE THE ULTIMATE VERSION, WHICH I THINK IS AS CLOSE TO THE ORIGINAL VERSION, WHICH YOU CAN FIND HERE.

 

As promised, The Lost Tapes will provide treats from the highly underrated NJ producer K-Def on a regular basis, to prepare y'all for the boom-bap masters relaunch on Redefinition Records and his upcoming 7" single "Time's Change" (which also features an incredible flip on Pete Rock & CL Smooth's classic "For Pete's Sake"). The Pete & CL joint of course embodied everything '90s hip-hop was supposed to sound like, so for fans of that good ol' 90s boom bap with great production this post should be right up your alley.

World Renown was a short lived duo consisting of K-Def's cousin Seven Shawn and Marley Marl's cousin John Doe. With connections like that, even blood bands, it's easy to see that their cousins weren't gonna let Shawn and J.D. rhyme over no wack beats. In 1994 the duo got their first taste of wax as Warner Bros. released their debut 12", "Come Take A Ride". The track was produced by Marley while the B-side remix was handled by K-Def (which is also the version that appears on the album). The VLS didn't make very much noise, but World Renown were given a second chance by the Warner Brothers label. In 1995, they released the Def produced Phife Dawg/ATCQ sampling "How Nice I Am" with the S.I.D. remix on the B-side. The 12" became alot more popular than their previous release and has through the years grown into an absolute hip-hop classic. The underground popularity of the single gave Warnor Bros' the courage to give the duo an album deal, paying for studio sessions and to some extent giving the duo free hands on the project.

Not very suprisingly Warner didn't know what to do with it once the material was handed in to them. This should be sometime around early to mid 1996. This was a time when hip-hop was changing, labels wanted cleaner production, mafioso or gangster themed fantasy lyrics and music easy to market. World Renown (luckily) had none of these attributes; the tracks they had been working on was centered around hardcore breaks, dusty jazz samples, distorted bass lines and agressive lyrics. Shawn and John Doe was far from the best MCs but they had plenty of charisma and actually did these fantastic instrumentals justice. It's no mystery that Warner decided to shelve World Renown's self-titled debut, a shame it was, but a mystery? Hell no!

Promo copies of the LP was however pressed up, being sent out to a selected few DJs and an equal selected few magazines for reviews. Matter of fact, the album got the 3.5 mics treatment in a 1996 edition of The Source. Fast forward to 2009 and the word was spreading that the album would finally see the light of the day, but rather than an actual retail release fans was treated to buy the album (albeit incomplete) via World Renown's myspace page. The link has been deleted by now but The Lost Tapes will satisfy your hunger by hooking you up with this gem. The original album had about four additional tracks; the reason they weren't included then was either because the original DAT tapes were gone or that those were joints produced by Marley that he didn't want the public to hear.

The version of the album below (which sounds pretty damn good considering it was ripped from a dodgy vinyl) has 10 tracks and none of them actually features the production work of Marley Marl according to World Renown's myspace back in 2009. This means that this (incomplete) version of their self-titled debut was produced by K-Def albeit with a little help and co-production from a guy called Blackcat. Even if it's not the complete LP, the tracks gives listeners a good look into what K-Def and World Renown was preparing for this album back in '95. Enjoy this shit, and if you're a fan of the true school hip-hop I know you will do just that.

01. "Roll With It"

02. "Shoowa"

03. "Definition Of An MC"

04. "Long Gev"

05. "How Nice I Am"

06. "Don't Trust Ur Man"

07. "Butta Love"

08. "EZ On The Tweeter"

09. "Come Take A Ride" [K-Def's West Coast Vibe]

10. "Easy Connect"

11. "Long Gev" [Instrumental]

WORLD RENOWN - "WORLD RENOWN" [PROMO]

* I can't respond to comments for some reaason but new link up and running.