CONFIDENCE Presents G.DOT & BORN Ft. EDO G, Rob-O & Grap Luva - "Living Legend"

Boston legend Edo G joins his young apprentices G.Dot & Born in recording a hauntingly ill dedication to Living Legend Pete Rock. Edo G and Pete of course created the "My Own Worst Enemy", the "Shed A Tear"/"Jus Listen" 12" and a couple of loose tracks togethher. To add even more authenticity to the cut, if you want to call it that, is that the trio alwso invites former InI members Grap Luva and Rob-O who of course worked extensively with Pete all the way back from the early '90s (and in the case of Grap, way, way earlier as they are of course cousins). To top it off, producer Confidence proves once again why he's a name to be reckoned with, building a beat that could've just as well comen out of Pete's own archive wih a piano driven theme,the longing sounds of a tenor saxophone fading in and out, and of course crisp clear but real hard drums. A well performed sick scratch hook separating the verses are the big red cherry on top. We are not even two weeks in into 2014 yet, but as of now this is most likely the best song I've heard so far,

As you can see by the cover this is actually lifted from a complet forthcoming album by G.Dot, Born, Edo and produced by Confidence. Word is, if i understand the e-mail drop rightly, G.Dot & Born wil handle about half of the tracks while Edo G will carry the rest - though there's three songs where Edo G appears on the half "not his". The album should be very dope, and is out on January 28 via Redline Music Distribution (click to pre-order).

Beneficence - "Cold Train" (Ft. "InI")

As I reported recently, Beneficence is about to release his second album on Ill Adrenaline Records, "Concrete Soul" (his fifth offering in total). Trust me when I say that this will not dissapoint, and to support that statement here is one of the stand-outs from the tracklist as the new single; the K-Def produced collaboration with both Rob-O and Grap Luva, formerly of InI. Certainly sounds like some lost classic shit from 1993, impeccable work from everyone involved! "Concrete Soul" is out this Tuesday on CD, with the vinyl edition following on December 18, you can pre-order your prefered version @ UGHH now.

[EXCLUSIVE] INI - "Center Of Attention" (The Real Deal)

Any self-respecting hip-hop fan are well aware of INI's ill-fated Pete Rock produced masterpiece that was supposed to be released in 1996 on Soul Brother Recordings. I even covered this album in my Shelved Classics section, where you can read more extensively about the project and the group. As I also mentioned there, when speaking to Robbie over @ Unkut, Pete Rock spoke on how there's never been a proper release or bootleg of the album ever released. The unauthorized BBE release from the 2000's featured slightly different mixes of many songs and totally missed out on Pete's trademark insstrumental interludes. Probably the closest thing to the real deal was released on a white label in '96/'97, likely by Pete or someone involved in the original sessions, as the original instrumentals was released by the same white label vinylists at the same time. This featured more of the interludes, the otherwise unreleased "Keep On", a totally different sequence from the BBE release, but instead three other songs were M.I.A. So it seems Pete's quote from that Unkut interview above seem pretty right on spot, don't you think?

Well, maybe not, and this is where it gets really interesting. My man ANT and I've been discussing the album for a long time, and he have the aforementioned white label release but assured me there were yet ANOTHER version, and that he actually was in posesssion of a rip of this. Thanks to this great digger, I finally got my digital hands on this a few days ago, and been pretty much banging it non stop. Ant originally got this rip from a blogger who run a site called My iPod Weighs A Ton, which is now long gone (although much of the original posts are still intact), but this is to my knowledge the first time the entire album is available in full anywhere on the net. It is a vinyl rip but I'm pretty sure this is not something that has ever been released in stores or in usual bootleg spots. Mine and Ant's take on it, is that the aforementioned blog guy or whoever gave it to him, was someone very close to the group; and that this is the original vinyl test press that was given to  group members, the producer, engineer Jamie Staub, label owner, and probably a very few selected others.

This theory gets more credible when you read the original blog post, which features much information that at least I have not heard elsewhere; and I've researched this album quite heavily to say the least; The album was originally not even titled "Center Of Attention", but "Who's Gonna Rock The Spot?"; and Heavy D was the one that convinced Pete to sign INI to the latter's Soul Brother Recordings imprint. Despite the "Fakin' Jax" single being something of a success, and featuring the classic "Props" which Funkmaster Flex played daily for months, label head Sylvia Rhone were unhappy with the finished projects and the heavy price tag of the Greene Street Recording Studies. The quartet eventually broke up as Rob-O and Grap Luva, who were the main voices of INI, wanted to use the name for themeselves. At the same time, Sylvia Rhone, clearly not one that should've been involved in hip-hop promotion at all, shelved the album along with projects from Deda/Pete Rock, Juggaknots, Omniscience, Supernatural and many others. 

The album is ripped in 160 kbps, but it's souning good enough for certain, especially consiering the chance to finally hear the full original album as it was intended to be heard! It's also not split up into separate tracks, just two tracks (Side A and Side B), but this is an album you listen to front-to-back either way so who gives a fuck. More people should rip stuff like that to force these ADD kids with the finger always close to the skip button to actually LISTEN and appreciate the arts of albums like we did, and sill do. But I'm getting carried away from the topic; the sequencing is the same as the white label, and has the same slightly different mixes of many songs as opposed to the BBE release; but it also has "Mind Over Matter", "Props", "Kross Roads" and "Keep On". In addition to that, it has all the instrumental interludes; and the chopped up spoken word interlude that's chopped up to form the intro/interlude/outro. Last but not least, it's filled with short skits featuring Mekolicious and Pete Red freestyling popping up every now and then. Massive thanks to INI, Pete Rock, Jamie Staub, Ant, the original uploadeder (Reinvention) for creating one of the best hip-hop albums of 1996, and finally giving us a chance to hear it, respectively. Total running time is about 65 minutes; the only song missing from the BBE release is "No More Words". Enjoy!

EDIT: Some people had some problem with the link, so I fixed it and uploaded it to MediaFire. should work like a charm now.

Side A:

A1. "Intro"

A2. "The Life I Live" / "Interlude"
A3. "Square One" / "Freestyle Interlude"

A4. "Fakin Jax" / "Interlude"

A5. "Step Up"

A6. "Interlude" / "Kross Roads"
A7. "Vocal Skit"

A8. "Center Of Attention" / "Interlude"

A9. "Mind Over Matter" / "Freestyle Interlude"

Side B:

B1. "Freestyle Interlude" / "Grown Man Sport" 

B2. "Think Twice" 

B3. "To Each His Own" (Ft. The Abstract & Q-Tip)

B4. "Interlude" / "Props"

B5. "Keep On" / "Freestyle Interlude"
B6. "What You Say"
B7. "Vocal Outro"

INI - "CENTER OF ATTENTION" [RARE TEST PRESS]

Kalhex Ft. Rob-O - "La Fine Ligne"

Kalhex is a trio from France that just released their single "Perspectives" on 12" and in digital format via Akromegalie Records. The release stands out as each side features a former member of the Pete Rock affiliated '90s crew InI. The previously posted "Perspectives" includes verses by Grap Luva and now we can also listen to the Rob-O featured B-side, "La Fine Ligne". I'm not sure which retailers carry the physical single, but there's a couple of copies for sale @ Discogs and the digital single can be purchased here. Very smooth sounding ish, Rob-O sounds right at home over this beat; iLL!

Kalhex Ft. Grap Luva (& Rob-O)

I've been meaning to post this for a while but it kept slipping my mind, but French hip-hop duo Kalhex will be releasing their new single "Perspectives" / "La Fine Ligne" on 12". The vinyl single will be available on March 15 and is limited to 500 copies. Interesting is that both joints on the single features a former member of the legendary underground unit InI. The A-side "Perspectives" features Grap Luva on the mic and can be heard in full, great quality below. This track is really dope, pure hip-hop with its smooth hypnotic sample and heavy drum pattern. Really makes me want to hear the B-side with Rob-O. Visit Akromégalie Records for more information.