[Classic Clips] PRINCE PAUL - "A Prince Among Thieves"

I remember back in '99 I picked up Prince Paul's magnificent "A Prince Among Thieves" and still to this day I play it on a semi-regular basis. Man, what an album! Whether you listen to it for the full experience with the skits or if you make a playlist using only the actual songs the project is absolutely stunning everytime. Not only might it actually be my personal favorite work from this legendary producer but it might very well also have been my first introduction to the terrific Breeze Brewin of Juggaknots fame. Breeze of course played the lead role of the album's story opposite Horror City's Big Sha while veterans like De La Soul, Sadat X, Kool Keith, Big Daddy Kane, Chris Rock, Everlast, and so many more made some brilliant cameos. Released on Tommy Boy Records in 1999 after almost a year of being held back, Paul's vision for the LP was to release it together with a full-length video feature which unfortunately never came into production. However, a 10 minutes long promo video for the album was shot and released - giving us a pretty good insight into what such a movie would've looked like. As I never featured it before I'm bringing it back for one of my Classic Clips posts.

To be perfectly honest, the main reason that I'm posting this right now is because Red Bull Academy just posted a brilliant interview with Breeze about his experiences working with Prince Paul on "A Prince Among Thieves". For fans of the album and Breeze/Juggaknots that one's an absolute must read, so don't sleep - check it out here. And as the good guy that I happen to be I'm also taking this opportunity to bless you with a cool lil' treat - the original "album trailer" mixed by Prince Paul and included on the promo 12" for "More Than You Know" - definitely a real cool listen with some hilarious voice overs!

PRINCE PAUL - "TRAILER"

[Album Stream] MARCO POLO - "PA2: Director's Cut"

Ooooooh shit, the time is finally hear! If you've been following this blog for at least two months you know that I've been superhyped about the release of Marco Polo's official follow up to his 2007 album "Port Authority"; even going as far as stating that this will without a doubt be among the very best albums of 2013. "PA2: Director's Cut" officially hits stores and retailers via Soulspazm Records this Tuesday but the label and artist have decided to let loose of a full stream of the LP a little early, and luckily I happened to sit at the computer just as they did so so I'm breaking my neck and shaking my head in disbelief to this boom bap monster full of ludicrous hard beats, a guest lists that probably haven't been matched since Pete's first "Soul Survivor" and a whole lot of cuts from turntable wizards such as Shylow, DJ Revolution, and DJ Romes. I'm only a few tracks in but I'm just as blowed away as I predicted I would be... Marco Polo is a name you can count on and has been for years, if he's in the credits you can Count on his placement being one of the best tracks on the LP (one of the most telling examples is the track he laced Torae with for the latter's "For The Record"; an album that also featured contributions by DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Diamond D, 9th Wonder, Large Professor, and Nottz).

Things kick off with "3 O'Clock" and from there it just keeps booming and banging in that hardcore hip-hop direction that only true heads can enjoy - your girlfriend might very well ask you to turn off that damn RACKET!! Litteraly, there's standout after standout, both beatwise and lyrical wise - which isn't really suprising considering it features a majority of my favorite spitters of all time. There's a lot of posse cuts here which are so welcome - hearing Tragedy Khadafi, OC, Inspectah Deck, and Large Professor is sort of a dream come true. The preceding joint featuring Nature, F.T., and Big Twinz is a real Winner too, matching the aggressive Queens style of the emcees with a somewhat more soulful beat... Don't get fooled though, nothing on hhere isn't straight balls to the walls hard as far as drum programming and overall style go. I also like how there's a lot of little crazy beat interludes coming in here and there, sometimes with talk over, sometimes not. On first listen I feel that this is by far Marco's strongest album yet; "Port Authority" was a terrific record with instant classics like OC's "Marquee", Large Pro's "The Radar", Roc Marcy's "Lay It Down", G Rap's "Hood Tales" and so forth. While pretty much all the individual tracks were brilliant, I thought as an album it didn't come all the way through as it sometimes felt more like a compilation than an album, due to a lack in coherrence betweeen the songs. That problem is nowehere to be found here; the skits, the typpe of beats, the sequencing, the guests (which include everybody from Last Emperor, La Coka Nostra, MC Eiht, Breezly Brewin, Malcolm Martin, the original Year Round family with Blaq Po, H. Stax & NYGz Panchi,, etc.), and the emphasis on the DJ makes this a truly exceptional journey into beats and rhymes as they should be done. Hip-hop at it's finest in other Word. And this is just on my first listen.... Can't fucking wait to get this on vinyl and make my neighbors hate me a little more! Stream the full album via OnSmash below, and order the CD from UGHH or iTunes if you're truly diitized. I'ma wait til' December 10 when the 3xLP vinyl drops (this set is like 80 minutes and I'm sure as hell ain't complaining).

 

01. "3 O'Clock" (Ft. Organized Konfusion + DJ Lynx)

02. "Savages" (Ft. ILLBILL, Slaine & Celph Titled + DJ Revolution)

03. "Earrings Off" (Ft. Rah Digga + Shylow)

04. "Can't Get Enough" (Ft. Big Twinz, Nature & F.T.)

05. "Astonishing" (Ft. OC, Inspectah Decck, Tragedy & Large Professor)

06. "6 Trill" (Ft. The Last Emperor + Shylow)

07. "West Coast Love" (Ft. MC Eiht & King Tee + DJ Revolution)

08. "Wrong Girl" (Ft. Reggie B & Reach)

09. "Drunken Sleuth" (Ft. Invincible)

10. "Intermission" (w. Michael Rappaport)

11. "Emergency Man" (Ft. Malcolm & Martin + DJ Revolution)

12. "Strange Brew" (Ft. Gangrene + DJ Romes)

13. "What They Say" (Ft. Lil' Fame, Kardinal Offishal, Styles P + Shylow)

14. "Parental Discretion" (Ft. Breeze Brewin)

15. "Underdogs" (Ft. Supastitition + Shylow)

16. "R U Gonna Eat?" (Ft. The Doppelgangaz)

17. "Sucka Free" (Ft. Blaq Poet, Hannibal Stax & Panchi of NYGz)

18. "G.U.R.U." (Ft. Talib Kweli & DJ Premier)

19. "Glory (Finish Hard)" (Ft. Masta Ace, AG, Posdnous & Dion Jenkins)

MARCO POLO - "PA2: Director's Cut" ... Stream @ OnSmash

Breeze Brewin - "Brew in Control"

It's been quite some time since we heard anything from the always ill Juggaknots front man Breezly Brewin, so anything new is more than welcome. Here Brew ferociously attacks the "Control" beat that Kendrick Lamar spat his 'King of New York' verse on last week (who gets name checked here). This is fucking RAW man, I can only hope that this is the prequel to new Breez material to come.

J-ZONE Ft. Breezly Brewin, Prince Paul, & Oxygen - "The Fox Hunt"

The posse tracks keeps on coming in 2012, the next hotter than the last, and with J-Zone back in business with a gang of some of the best in the game. I've been listenig to J-Zone since he dropped his "A Bottle of Whup Ass" EP, and I was blown away by his beats then, and I'm still am. Over a funky jazz break J-Zone cooks up another one of his magic beats and invites several Lost Tapes favorites; Prince Paul, Breezly Breewin (formerly of Juggaknots) and last, but definitely not least, Soundsci's/Sputnik Brown's Oxygen. The latter is a real treat for me to hear, as in my extensive interview he did for The Lost Tapes, he mentioned that J-Zone was one of the producers he really wanted to work with ASAP, so it's great to see that dream came through for him. He definitely deserves it, and this joint is nothing short of superior material.

"The Fox Hunt" is the B-side to a 45 limited to 500 copies, so get them wile you can, and there's a bunch of different colors of vinyl to choose from. Order your copies here while they are still available fellow hip-hop heads, and make sure your neck bangs to this one, cuz I know I'm doing just that.