[Throwback] SONJA BLADE - Then & Now (Ft. Busta Rhymes, Buckwild, EZ El-P & Smif-N-Wessun)

The other day I was listening to Sonja Blade's DJ Premier produced classic 12" "Look For The Name" on Bodybag Entertainment which really peeked my interest in whatever happened to this hardspitting Brooklyn femcee. She also dropped another single on the same label, the Black Rob-assisted "One Thug", a solo on the "Romeo Must Die" soundtrack, a collaboration with P, Busta, L Boogie, and NORE on the first "Violators" LP. Add a few guest apperances on records for Rah Digga, DJ Kay Slay, Ice Cube, Monifah, Shaq, Fabolous, and Tracie Spencer; all music that was released between 1998 and 2001. These many guest apperances was a marketing strategy as Blade was preparing to release her debut album "Who Am I" in '01 through Virgin/Bodybags with manager Chris Lighty for Violators. At least the majority of the album seems to have been completed, as far as recording goes, and according to this MTV.com article from April 2000, it reveals that production was to be handled by DJ Premier, DJ Scratch, Rockwilder, Clark Kent, Mario Winans of The Hitmen, DJ Clue and more. Artists set to appear included Busta Rhymes, Carl Thomas and Nate Dogg. Being the huge D.I.T.C. fanatic that I am, I came across info about a 2001 white label featuring a Blade/Busta collaboration called "So Gutta", produced by Buckwild, a few years back. This seemed pretty much impossible to find,  in fact I was starting to wonder if it wasn't some shady blend or whatever, but then a radio- or mixtape rip of the song appeared on YT late last year. It's a fucking hardcore ass MONSTER of a track with Blade and Busta going back-and-forth over Buck's sinister boom bap anthem; flipping the same sample used by Dilated Peoples for "Triple Optics". With cuts like "So Gutta", "Look For The Name" and "One Thug" it could've been quite a sick LP though we'll never now, as it's definitely lost to the public forever. Check out "So Gutta" with Busta and Buckwild up top, it probably cuts off one minute too early but damn was I excited to find this at last (mad shouts to YT uploader zerominus for dropping this gem on us). Now if anyone have the full track, or at least a decent mixtape Mp3 please send me an e-mail or drop a commentl.

A lot of emcees, and for some reason especially female spitters, have a good season only to then never be heard from again - i.e. Charlie Baltimore, Vita, Jane Doe (expect a real dope post on here very soon btw), Amil, and so on. This is not the case with Blade as she, over the years, slowly has been starting to make moves and rebuilding her brand again. Every now and then she's dropping a fresh single and/or video via her YouTube account, There's no question that she still's got the flow and the voice and though not every song is a masterpiece I really fell in love with the BK anthem "Brooklyn Keeps On Taking It" from 2012, produced by Ez-ELPEE and featuring both Tek-N-Steele all over the video and dropping a short but tuff verse near the end. Promising shit right here!