AG's 2010 album "Everything's Berri" kind of threw me for a loop when I first heard it. The lyrics were all there as usual with one of the all time greats, but I was dissappointed with the sound at first as it was the first time I heard the D.I.T.C. legend go in without any of his D.I. brethren, or other intense outside producers such as Madlib, Dilla, E-Blaze, Jake One, and so on. This was the first time the world heard Ray West, and it definitely took some time to adjust to his somewhat unorthodox way of chopping samples and arranging songs, which is why I was initially dissappointed in "Everything's Berrii". However, as time has moved on, Ray West has become one of the main affiliated producers of the D.I. camp and as I said in my previous post, with each release he has came more into his own and his last two mini albums has been that STRAIGHT FIRE. And now going back and listening to the album that set it all off I realize that its a lot better than what I had first seen it, though it's not a masterpiece like A's albums with Show or West's later work with OC, AG and John Robinson and the LuvNY collective.
Originally released on CD only in 2010 by Fat Beats, not too long ago the label and the duo decided to press up a limited amount of vinyl runs for the project. This 2xLP set has a few tracks not featured on the original CD, and while I posted the extended "Marcberg" when the team released it as a single I just realized (again while doing the producer post below this one) that Ray West 45 @ Soundcloud had actually posted streams to all three exclusive songs in full. This was three months ago, but like I always say in these types of situation - better late than never, that's for damn sure! First out is the aforementioned "Marcberg" extended version, which is absolutely beautiful and makes me truly wonder why the hell it was cut short in the first place. The original album version used it as a kind of skit with only a fat but short Roc Marciano verse before cutting to the next song. Here Roc's verse are followed by a hook and an equally ill AG verse. Then you got another really crazy joint called "Buster's Train" that follows none other than Sadat X, and we all know that the X-Man and AG has a crazy chemistry together. The slow blues influenced joint that closes the sampler is a remix of "Infected", a song that appeared on the CD in its original format. If you're a vinyl head and haven't grabbed "Got Berries?" yet, be sure to do so from e.g. HHV (I can't find it at Fat Beats or UGHH which probably means it's sold out as it was a limited release). Oh well, at least you can hear the three extra tracks below and they are all fat!
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